12 I'LAIALKID/E. 



found. They are not merely so rough-shelled as those of Iln's niolucca and Cnrphibis spinicollis, 

 and are of a uniform deep greenish-black colour, and may be readily distinguished from those of 

 any other Australian bird, by intensity and depth of colour. A set of three eggs in the Australian 

 Museum Collection talcen liy the late Mr. K. 11. Bennett, on Yandembah Station, near the 

 Lachlan River, on the 2nd November, iSSq, measure: — Length (A) 2'i6 x 1-48 inches; (B) 

 2-21 X I-4 inches; (C) i- 1 x 1-47 inches. Another set of three taken on thg same date 

 measure: — Length (.\) 1-94 x 1-33 inches; (B) 1-95 x 1-35 inches; (C) 2'2 x 1-47 inches. 



Young birds are dark brown above and below, the wings and tail-feathers glossed with 

 green, and the rump and upper tail-coverts with dull purple, and having a slight indication of 

 the reddish-chestnut patch on the shoulders; head and neck brown, most of the feathers having 

 whitish margins, giving these parts a finely-streaked appearance. Wing 10-5 inches. 



The breeding season is very irregular in Eastern Australia, but it is usually during September 

 and the three following months. 



Family PLATALEID^. 

 Platalea regia. 



KOYAL SPOONBILL. 



riatal'M ri'yia, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 106; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI. , pi. .5l> (1848) ; 

 it^., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 11., p. 287 (1865); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 

 XXVI., p. 47 (18'J8); iW., Hand-1. Bds., Vol. I., p. 188 M899). 



Platalea melnuor/u/nr/ui., Ni>rth, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. (2iid Ser.), Vol. X., p. 218 (180.">). 



Adult male. — Aboiy ami hi'luiv, iitchidiity an elunynli'il cresi 011 tlic croim of the, hi-nd aiid iiapf, 

 pure ivhite ; for/' Iialf of head and Ihe entire breaa/, bare, black; bill black ; legs and fei'l black ; iris 

 reddii/t-broicn. Total length, iu tin- jlesh SO inchi's, iinng LI, tail JfS, bill / , tarsus I^'o. 



Adult FEMALK. — Similar in phimaye til the male. 



Distribiitiiiu. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, Victoria, South iVustralia, Aru Islands, Norfolk Island. 



/'(5N OULD described the present species in 1837 in the "Proceedings of the Zoological 

 V — A. Society " from a specimen obtained in New South Wales. .Although by no means 

 common, it appears to be generally distributed over the Australian continent, except in the 

 centre and extreme south-west, and it has been found breeding in all the States, chiefly in 

 company with the White and Straw-necked Ibis. The late Mr. H. G. Evered of Melbourne 

 found it breeding in Southern New South Wales, Mr. George Savidge on the Clarence River, 

 North-western New South Wales, Dr. E. D'Ombrain and Mr. W. McLellan in South-western 

 Victoria. In each of these instances an isolated nest of the Royal or Black-billed Spoonbill 

 was found among a breeding colony of the White or Straw-necked Ibis. There are eggs in the 

 Australian Museum Collection taken in Northern Queensland, and I have examined eggs from 

 near the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South .Australia. 



As Gould has pointed out, the elongated plumes on the crown of the head and nape are 

 probably assumed only during the breeding season, for most of the specimens in the Australian 

 Museum Collection are destitute of them, as are also young birds, which show traces more or 

 less of a brownish wash on the outer webs of the apical portion of the outer quills, and the bare 

 skin does not reach so far back behind the eye. The food of this species consists of small fish. 



