980 



Xi.STS A. YD EGGS OF MSTRAT-JAX BIRDS. 



lanceolate-striped markings of white on the scapiilaries of the wings. 

 The male has nisty-red on the throat ; the female is Ughter coloured 

 about the head and neck; feet and bill are yellowish; total length, 

 about 31 inches. 



Tlie late Mr. Elsey wrote to Gould ; " The Plotus is common here 

 (Victoria R.), and excellent eating. During Febniary and March it 

 was incubating. It chooses large trees that hang over the water above 

 and through the mangi'oves, and in these a number of them build a 

 colony of large, coarse, flattish nests of dead sticks and twigs, which 

 seem, from the quantity of dirt about them and their stained appearance, 

 to be used year after year. Each season they place in the centre a few 

 fresh gi-een leaves, and on these they lay three or four white eggs, with 

 a very earthy, opaque, but brittle shell. We have enjoyed many flue 

 meals of these eggs, sometimes getting from forty to fifty in a single 

 tree. Both birds sit." 



Mr. Wm. Bateman, a fishennan, who visited rookeries in Lake 

 Moii'a, Riverina, informed mc that Darters sometimes breed in company 

 with Cormorants. Yovmg Darters, while the down is on, and unable to 

 fly, vomit on the intruders lobsters and fish in various stages of 

 digestion they may have swallowed, and then tumble into the water, 

 diving twenty or thirty yards. If the nests are re-visited next day, 

 the young are found in their places again. Perhaps the old bii'ds can-y, 

 or help, them back. The young are of comical appearance, with long 

 bills and necks, the heads being the same thickness, or, rather, thin- 

 ness, as the necks, and their bodies are dressed in striking j'ellowish 

 down. 



The usual breeding months arc October and November. It Wivs 

 stated that Darters used to breed in the neighbourhood of Brisbane 

 about December and January, while, accoi-ding to the late Mr. Elsey, 

 they used to lay in still more northern parts during February and 

 March. 



On the 18th September, Mr. S. W. Jackson, accompanied by his 

 brother and Mr. Vesper, found a colony of about twelve pairs of these 

 birds breeding in swamp oak (CamnriiKi ) trees, which were leaning 

 over Harrington Neck, near South Grafton. A poetical picture of 

 the locality from a photogi'aph taken by Mr. Jackson is here repro- 

 duced (see illustration). The nests were ten in number, and all 

 contained three eggs each, which were slightly incubated. Mr. 



Jack-son observes: — "Both birds sit. The nests are built at a 



variety of altitudes, some only six feet from the ground, others thirty 

 feet high, two or three nests being in the one ti'ee. Wlien the nests 

 are being robbed, the birds soar high above, but return immediately 

 and sit on them again after the eggs have gone. Even if the nest be 

 removed, the poor bird will sit on the limb for hours at the place the 

 nest was situated. I onl\' once before found the nests of those Inrds, 

 and that was on the 9tli November, 1894, up the Clarence River, about 

 five miles above South Grafton. The nests were five in number, and 

 were built in swamp oak trees leaning over the river bank. 



" One of the nests on this date contained five eggs, the others three 

 each, so I am now perfectly sure that (line is the usual number laid 

 for a sitting." 



