412 CO^'TRIBUTIOlJfS TO AUSTRALIAN OOLOGY, 



54. Erttheogents ci2«^ctus, Gould. 



This species of upland Plover breeds during October and 

 November, sometimes in December. It is a bird never, as far as 

 I know, met with on the coast, but I have received specimens 

 from the Clarence, even shot near Grrafton. Its stronghold seems 

 to be the interior of New South Wales and of South Australia. 

 The eggs are four for a sitting, placed in a slight depression on 

 the ground ; in several instances Mr. Bennett informs me, he 

 found them on the mud at the waters' edge of a large inland 

 lagoon or lake in the Lachlan district, and smeared over with mud 

 as if the birds had been shifting them from place to place, or 

 perhaps they were purposely smeared over to prevent them being 

 detected. On the whole they resemble those of ^gialitis nicjri- 

 frons, varying from light to dark stone colour, thickly covered all 

 over with irregular angular and curved hair lines, and irregular 

 shaped markings of black, whicli cross and recross each other in 

 various directions, the lines vary in thickness from that of a fine 

 hair to that of coarse thread, on the thicker end here and there 

 they loop and form tangles. Measurements of three from one 

 nest (1) 1-18 X 0-85 ; (2) 115 x 0-85 ; (3) 1-22 x OSI.—fFrom 

 Mr. Bennett's Coll.) 



55. Herodtas pacifica, Latham. 



This fine Heron was observed by Mr. K. H. Bennett breeding 

 in company with the Spoon-bills (JP.flavipes) in swamps in the 

 Lachlan district, the nest is composed of sticks laid crossways 

 over some horizontal fork or flat portion of a thick bough, it is 

 a scanty structures, through which the eggs, four for a sitting 

 can be seen. They are of a beautiful pale blue, average specimens 

 measure as follows: (1) 2'12 x 1-55 in. ; (2) 2-2 x 1-52 in. ; (3) 

 1"83 X I 37 in. ; (4) 1"83 x 1*35 in. ; pairs taken from different 

 nests in the same tree. 



