BY A. J. NORTH. 881 



Mr. Boyd also informs me that they breed sometimes in the 

 open forest Eucalyj^ti, and that he has obtained very young 

 pigeons miles from the coast. Last year he did not observe any 

 pigeons till after Christmas, but obtained two specimens this 

 season on the 14th of September, and has since seen several small 

 flocks. Mr. Boyd is of opinion that the cause of the pigeons not 

 frequenting the Herbert River district so much as formerly is due 

 to the felling of hundreds of acres of scrub that contained the 

 berry -bearing trees on which they fed. 



It is worthy of note that the nests of Myristicivora spilorrhoa, 

 found by Captain Proctor, Mr. W. T. White, and the late Mr. 

 John Macgillivray, each contained two eggs for a full sitting, 

 while those found by Gilbert at Port Essington either contained 

 a single egg or a single young bird. 



The eggs vary in shape from an ellipse to an elongated oval, 

 are pure white, the texture of the shell being fine, one specimen 

 being lustreless, the other slightly glossy. Length (A) 1"8 x 1'3 

 inch; (B) 1-83 x 1-2 inch. 



It may not be out of place to mention here that migratorial 

 birds are in some seasons more abundant in the localities they 

 usually visit than in others, which is not always due to climatic 

 influences or an abundance of food. The Top-knot Pigeons (Lo'pho- 

 laimus antarcticus), especially, have been very numerous this 

 season in New South Wales, my attention first being drawn to 

 the fact by the unusually large number of these pigeons that were 

 exposed for sale in the poulterers' shops about Sydney during 

 July and August. 



On the 9th of August some notes were contributed to the 

 'Sydney Mail,' referring to the unusual number of Top-knot 

 Pigeons which were on the brushes at that time in the neighbour- 

 hood of Gosfoid, several of which had made nests and laid their 

 eggs. Mr. W. J. Grime also informs me that "the Top-knot 

 Pigeons were pai'ticularly plentiful this season in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Tweed River, and that flocks of them, numbering 

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