„^0 A'ESTS AND liGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



conveniently carrying away such large oological trophies. However, 

 the hist Australian eggs of the Jabiru described were before the Royal 

 Society of Queensland, by Messrs. W. T. White and Hy. Tryon, on 6th 

 August, 1886, from sjiecimens collected in the neighbourhood of 

 Ingham, on the Herbert River, in March of the previous year. 



Mr. White states : " The nest of the Jabii'U bears a gi-eat resem- 

 blance to the nest of the Eagle in both size and appearance, but it is 

 always so situated that there is notliing above it. The bird selects a 

 lofty tree, generally one with the top broken ofi, close to the margin of 

 a swamp or lagoon, and on the highest point of it builds a pile of sticks 

 about three feet in depth and foui- in diameter; a thin layer of gi-ass 

 or i-ushes is placed upon the sticks, and upon this suiface, which is 

 almost perfectly flat, the eggs (two in number) are laid. I am of 

 opinion that the Jabiru, hke the Native Companion, does not lay more 

 than two eggs, and, hke most waders, breeds during the rainy season. 

 I am unable to say what the period of incubation is, but both sexes 

 share in the process." 



When I exhibited the pair of " the first recorded eggs of Austraha's 

 only Stork,'' before the Field Natiualists' Club of Victoria, on the 10th 

 October, 1887, I was at the time unaware that the eggs had been des- 

 cribed the year previous by Messrs. White and Tryon. 



Ihe egg-s I described of the Jabiru were collected by Mr. John L. Ayres 

 duiing August, 1887, in the Clarence River District. The nest was 

 situated comparatively low (about twelve feet from the surface of the 

 water) in tea-tree, iu a swamp about six miles from Grafton. Mr. 

 Ayres made the discovery while Duck-shooting in a boat. He has 

 also taken young in long, grey down in the locaUty. 



There was apparently a temporary " boom " in Storks' eggs, for 

 none were collected before, or have been since, that I am aware of.* 

 About the same time as I exliibited the pair mentioned, Mr. A. J. North 

 described before the Linncan Society of New South Wales another pair 

 in the collection of the National Museiun, Melbourne, which were ob- 

 tained, I beheve, through the .same channel as mine, and bearing 

 similar data. 



Mr. North mentions the fact that my friend, the late Mr. George 

 Barnard, found a Jabiru's nest near Rockhampton (Queensland), but 

 these birds did not remain long in possession of it owing to the repeated 

 attacks of a pair of Wedgc-tailcd Eagles, which ultimately caused the 

 Jabirus to quit. Mr. North was also informed by Dr. R^imsay that 

 a pair of Jabirus was known to breed on the border of LaJce 

 Macquarie, New South Wales, in 1860. 



Breeding months, August to March or April. 



• I find Mr. S. W. Jackson has a piir d.iled Xichdlson R 25/4/98. Dimenbions 

 (i) 2-95 X 2 15, (2) 2-8 X 21. 



