those of Gnouttcus spinicullis are from iifty to a liundred, and even more; this possibly is 

 accounted for by the fact of the latter being inhnitely more numerous. 



" Having thus obtained the eggs of Tlin-skioruis strictipcuiils, I went on to the breeding-place 

 of Genmtkus ^spimcollis, several hundred yards distant ; here, as with the White Ibis, I found the 

 young birds far more numerous than the eggs, but as the nests were in such numbers I had no 

 difficulty in ol.taming as many eggs as I required. This breeding-place was of great extent, 

 and there must have been thousands of young ones, the whole place being fairly alive with them 

 as they scrambled off on my near approach, so much so, that the moving mass quite frightened 

 my horse, and I had some difficulty in getting him near enough to the nests to secure the eggs. 

 In trying to secrete themselves I observed that numbers of the young birds shared the same 

 fate as their white confreres, whilst numbers of dead ones, in the same lix, showed plainly that 

 they had been disturbed on some similar occasion." 



Under date 2nd November, 1900, Mr. K. Williams of Swan Creek, Ulmarra, Clarence 

 River, New South Wales, wrote me:—" I first found the White Ibis (Tlurskionns stnctipcunis) 

 building at the latter end of July, 1900, in a large swamp, where the water is one to four feet in 

 depth, and the reeds in places eight feet high, and in the thickest patch I discovered a colony of 

 this species engaged building their nests, .\ided by a strong wind which was blowing towards 

 me from them, I was able to crawl up and hide within twenty feet of them for over an hour 

 without being discovered. The performance-I can call it by no better name-forcibly 

 reminded me of what I have read of some of the religious rites of our Ancient Druids m times 

 gone by. The laying of each straw, of which their very crude nests are built, appears to be the 

 signal for a unanimous ' caw,' which sounded badly enough, but which seemed eittier very 

 sokmn or very ridiculous, according to the temperament of the onlooker. Previous to my 

 finding them they had broken down the reeds, and had wo\'en these to form a long platform or 

 terrace about sixteen feet long, with irregular arms branching for two or three feet on each side, 

 at a height of about a foot above water level. This terrace was nowhere more than about 

 eighteen inches wide on its surface. One bird (I could not distinguish between male and female) 

 appeared to have the superintendence of the whole array of nests on his shoulders. He (I take 

 it to be the male) marched about from one to the other of the nests which were in progress of 

 building, apparently giving orders. The females were busy biting off the reeds into lengths of 

 about nine inches, which they laid with great ceremony in criss-cross fashion at the extremity 

 of the above-mentioned arms. A few of these, just sufficient to keep the eggs from rolling into 

 the water, constitute the nest. On going to the place some few weeks after, I found that sixteen 

 nests had been made on this platform, and each cohtained three eggs. Other nests which 1 

 found and examined on the same day were abandoned by the birds. In no case have I known 

 them to utilise a nest which I had previously robbed or handled. A peculiar foetid smell pervades 

 the atmosphere in the vicinity of their nests." 



Mr. George Savidge, of Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence River, has sent me the following 

 notes, accompanied with a photograph, from which the figure has been reproduced :-" The 

 photograph I forwarded to you of the nesting site of the White Ibis (Thn-skw,nns stncUpcnms) 

 was taken early in September, 1908, on a very large swanrp at the back of Ulmarra, Clarence 

 River On arriving at the water's edge we had no difficulty in locatmg the breeding 

 ground, as the birds were continually passing to and fro with building material and food for 

 their youncr. We carried the punt to the water's edge and I poled it out while my son walked, 

 the water and mud being about three feet deep. W^e had not proceeded many hundred yards 

 before we came upon a deep channel of clear water, about fifty yards wide. This clear channel 

 contained many water fowl of various kinds, Ducks m large numbers and species. Swans, 

 Coots, Redbills, and the beautiful and interesting Parra. On arriving at our destination 

 a-and si-ht, for the W^hite Ibis were breeding here in scores, but not all together, a 



it was a 



