NESTS AND EGGS OF AVSTKAT.IAN BIRDS. 561 



my hand into the hole whoro I felt three dear little baby Kingfishers ; 

 and how lovely and warm thoy were! I did not disturb them, and 

 as I was getting down off the tree I noticed the old bird sitting on 

 a neighboinnng mangrove, and I have no doubt she was wishing I 

 would go. But I did not huiTy myself, and she, being anxious to see 

 if her little ones were safe, did not wait long, but quickly and joyfully 

 flew back to her treasures. " 



Tlie next set of Mangrove Kingfisher's eggs we hear of was exhibited 

 and described by Mr. A. J. North before the Linncan Society of New 

 South Wales. 30th November, 1892. The eggs were obtained through 

 the good agency of Mr. J. A. Boyd. The following is Mr. Boyd's own 

 interesting account of the finding : " While on a trip to Hinchinbrook 

 Island I was camped, in the beginning of October, 1892, on a ridge 

 which, intersecting the forest of mangi'oves, ran down to a salt-water 

 creek about two miles from the sea. On several successive days I had 

 noticed a Kingfisher (H . xardidus) settle on a limb of a tree that had 

 fallen into the stream, and stay there some little time picking and 

 pluming herself. As she always came from and returned in the same 

 direction, I concluded that she was building, and on the 6th insfc. 

 I traced her to a teiinites' nest in a blood-wood tree (Etirah/ptiis 

 rciri/mhaxa ), about thirty feet from the gi-ound, and leaning over the 

 water. Tlie tree was two feet and a-half at the base, and the ant nest — 

 not a large one — projecting only about twenty inches from the limb on 

 which it was placed. I sent my black fellow up, and he brought down 

 three eggs, two of which were slightly incubated, and reported there 

 was no made nest, the eggs being simply laid on the bare substance 

 of the ant-heap at the end of the burrow. I did not notice the male 

 bird near the nest, bvit heard him calling from a mangrove island about 

 two hundred yards awav. 



Mr. Boyd informed Mr. North that on the 26th December following 

 he again visited the nest and flushed the Kingfisher from two fresh 

 eggs. Evidently the same bird that was robbed in October had laid 

 again, notwithstanding the termites' mound had been somewhat roughly 

 opened by the blackfellow's tomahawk on the previous occasion. 



448. T.\NYSIPTERA SYLVIA, Gould. (68) 



WHITE-TAILED KINGFISHER 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., supp., pi. 6. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xvii., p. 300. 



Previous Peseriftions of Eggs. — Diggles : Companion Gould's Hand- 

 book, p. (1877) ; Campbell ; Southern Science Record 

 (1885); North: Austn. Mus, Cat., p. 39 {18S9) ; I.e Souef : 

 Ibis, p. 55 (1S98). 



Geograj)hiraI Distrihutinn. — North Queensland. 

 36 



