NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 669 



Sjlossv ; colour, p\ire white. Dimensions in inches (1) 1-7R x 1'24, 

 (2) l'7 X M8. 



Oh.irn'fifioiix. — The Nutmeg Pigeon, with InifTv-whitc phimnge and 

 strongly contrasted black pinions, frequents the northern part of Aus- 

 tralia and some of the islands bcvond Tt is strictly arboreal in its 

 habits. 



In the Port Darwin district, Gilbert observes that : " It pairs and 

 commences breeding immediately after its amval in (the beginning) 

 November. Tlie nest is formed of a few sticks laid across one another 

 in opposite directions, and is so slight a structure that the eggs may 

 usually be seen through the interstices from beneath, and it is so flat 

 that it appears wonderful how the eggs remain upon it when the branch 

 is waving about in the wind ; it is usually built on a horizontal brancli 

 of a mangrove, and it would seem that it prefers for this purpose a 

 branch overlianging water. That it never lays more than one egg. 

 appears to me without a doubt, for on visiting Tablchead River, on 

 the eastern side of the harbour of Port Essington, I found no less 

 than twenty nests, all of which contained either a single es-g or a single 

 young bird." 



Mr. Kendall Broadbent's valuable testimony towards the life history 

 of this bird is that " Tlie Wliitc Nutmeg Pigeon (MyrinticivnTn 

 spiJiirrh'iri ). otherwise known as the Torres Strait Pigeon, a.mves at 

 Card well in September and departs in April. Its favourite breeding 

 haunts are among the islands, such as Mangrove Island, some few 

 miles down Hinchinbrook Channel, Brook Island, in Rockingham Bay, 

 the Family Group, Dunk Island, and North and South Barnard 

 Islands. They fly to and fro between the Bamards and the mainland 

 in flocks of hundreds, the distance travelled by some to their feeding 

 grounds away among the higher moimtains being thirty miles. On 

 many of the Rockingham Bay Islands they arc so numerous that their 

 cries drown all other sounds. In the early morning they leave for the 

 feeding grounds, but continue passing to and fro all through the day in 

 smaller or gi-eater numbers. The scrabs of the Murray, Tully, Herbert, 

 and other rivers, swann with these birds in day time, but at dusk are 

 deserted, the birds having then gone to the islands to pass the night. 

 At dawn and before sunset a constant stream of Pigeons to the ranges 

 in the first case, and from them in the second, may be seen on the 

 wing. On several occasions, when camped in the pilot cutter, anchored 

 between the Bamards, I observed hvmdreds of these birds fly on to 

 the rocks and walk to the water's edge as if to drink. I am unable to 

 say whether such was really the case, but it would perhaps repay a 

 local ornithologist to investigate the matter. This bird I have never 

 seen below the Herbert River, but it freqiients all the scrub coast 

 ranges north of that. Its habitat then stretches to the eastward, the 

 bird being found on the south east coast of New Guinea as far down 

 as Dinner Island, but it appears no further, as far as my acquaintance 

 with Teste Island, Bramble Haven, and other islands would indicate. 

 In these latter places the Nicobar Pigeon takes its place. I should say 

 the proper habitat, from September to March, is the coastal portion 



