CARPHIBiS. 9 



of soil, for this purpose, the birds carrying them in the tips of the bills, and in a dangling' 

 manner. The clutches of eggs varied from two to four, but averaged three I should say. A 

 noticeable feature was that the two different species kept in the main separate, that is to say 

 small groups of the White Ibis nested together usually, but not always, and we simply had to 

 note each group as the birds left it, and marked the eggs distinctly as we secured them. 

 The eggs were mostly stained, the freshest being least so. Another noticeable feature was that 

 in certain chosen areas the nests appeared to be more uniformly levelled into platforms, and all 

 young ones that could leave the nests were 'rounded up' into nurseries and remained there, 

 being fed continuously by the parents, while some of the latter appeared to be acting as ' drovers,' 

 and kept the mob together. There were se\-eral hundreds in each nursery. Breeding with the 

 Ibis were two or three pairs of the Royal Spoonbill (Platalea irgiaj, and we took two clutches 

 of three and four eggs respectively. I think this is the farthest south record for the eggs of 

 this Spoonbill. There were no Plalihis fiavipes. The birds were very tame, and only when 

 we purposely fired a shot in the air did they rise en iinnsf, and then the sky was darkened 

 by hundreds of birds, whose wings as they rose cleaved the air with a mighty whistling noise. 

 Then they wheeled and soared in a vast body, but very quietly settled again and with out- 

 stretched neck and dangling legs alighted on the nearest spot to their nest, and began to fi:^ht 

 and push and S(]uawk till each found its own nest. I should think both sexes assist in 

 the incubating. The swamp was about three feet deep in the nest area, reeking of the odour 

 of the foulings of the birds, and the water being polluted caused a redness of the skin of our legs 

 from some chemical irritation. We were told that only during the last two or three years had 

 the Ibis bred there, but that a number of years ago they had done so and left it again." 



Dr. Holden wrote me from Tasmania: — "A specimen oi Gfroiitiiiis sf>iiiicollis was shot at 

 Montagu, Tasmania, in the last week of September, 1S95, by Mr. Fitzpatrick, the Government 

 school master, who sent it to me, and I forwarded it to the Tasmanian Museum, Ilobart." 



The eggs are usually three in number for a sitting, soiuetimes four, rarely live, oval or 

 elongate-oval in form, dull white, the shell being coarse-grained, minutely pitted, lustreless and 

 having small limy excrescences distributed over the shell, the inner side of the latter being of a 

 dark green tint. The same variations in shape are to be found in the eggs of this species, as in 

 those of the White Ibis, in fact there is nothing in shape, size and colour to distinguish the eggs 

 of these two species from each other ; the eggs of both are frequently much nest-stained. Six 

 eggs measure; — Length (A) 2-6 x 1-7 inches: (B) 2-52 x 175 inches; (C) 2-54 x 17 inches; 

 (0)272 X 1-67 inches; (E) 2-58 x 177 inches; (F) 2-48 x 172 inches. A set of four taken 

 by Mr. George Savidge, at Lawrence, on the Clarence River, New South Wales, on the 24th 

 September, 1901, measures : — Length (A) 2-58 x 172 inches; (B) 2-67 x 1-67 inches; (C) 

 2'59 X 1-69 inches; (D) 2'58 x 172 inches. 



In Eastern Australia, as with the preceding species, with which it frequently breeds in the 

 same swamp or portion of flooded country, September and the three following months constitute 

 the usual breeding season. If favourable conditions do not present themselves during this 

 period, the breeding season may commence after the first autumnal rains, or even as late as the 

 depth of winter. 



