218 OOLOGICAL NOTES, 



similar in colour and markings to those of its southern congener 

 M, gramineus, but is slightly larger, being of a reddish-white 

 ground colour, freckled all over with purplish-red markings, which 

 predominate as usual on the thicker end of the egg. Length, 

 0-8 X 0-58 inch. 



Platalba melanorhyncha, Reichenbach. 



The Black-faced Spoonbill is generally distributed in favourable 

 situations over the north-eastern and northern portions of the 

 Australian Continent, its range extending also to the Aru Islands, 

 w^here several examples were procured by the late Mr. S. White, 

 and which are now contained in the Reference Collection of the 

 Australian Museum. In New South Wales it is a comparatively 

 rare species, and is seldom met with except on the mangrove flats 

 and swamps adjacent to the northern coastal rivers, but recently 

 it has been found breeding on an inland swamp near the extreme 

 southern boundary of the colony. For an opportunity of examin- 

 ing and describing the eggs of this species I am indebted to Mr. 

 James Kershaw, of the National Museum, Melbourne, who has 

 kindly forwarded me a set, together with the following note : — 

 " The eggs of Plaialea melanorhyncha I sent you last week were 

 obtained by Mr. H. G. Evered, who has supplied me with the 

 following information relative to the taking of them : — ' W^hile 

 duck shooting on Christmas Day, 1893, on one of the swamps 

 along the banks of the Murray River, about sixty miles above 

 Echuca, and when nearing an Ibis rookery, the man who was 

 poling the boat drew my attention to a bird flying with the White 

 Ibis ( Threskiornis strictipenttis) which we had disturbed; at the 

 same time informing me that the bird was almost a stranger in 

 those parts, and that he had not seen a specimen for the previous 

 four or five years. As it would not leave the spot, but continued 

 flying in a circle, we thought there might possibly be a nest near 

 at hand, so we concealed our boat in a bed of reeds and watched. 

 After a little while all the Ibis, and lastly the bird which I now 

 recognised to be a Spoonbill, settled in an adjacent bed of reeds. 

 We now approached as noiselessly as possible, and when within 



