I'LATALKA. 



13 



aquatic insects, and inoiluscs. The stoniacli of a specimen presented by Mr. J. 1'. Connally to 

 the Trustees of the Austrahan Museum, and obtained by him at Lake Illawarra, New South 

 Wales, contained only a beach worn vaKe ol a sea-shell. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote me from Melbourne, \'ictoria, as follows : — " In the early sixties 

 the Black-faced Spoonbill frequently visited some shallow swamps between Northcote and 

 Heidelberg, in company with Platihii ftavipfi, but these birds have seldom been seen in \'ictoriaof 

 late years. .\t West Kimberley, Xorth-western .\ustralia, they are fairly common, where they 

 wade amongst the weeds and capture all sorts of aquatic insects. On the Daly River, in the 

 Northern Territory of South Australia, they breed in large numbers, and their eggs are 

 remarkable for being distinctly marked." 



From Copmanhurst, New South Wales, Mr. deorge Savidge wrote me : — " The Blacic- 

 faced Spoonbill { I'latalca rc^ia) is very sparingly dispersed over the lower reaches of the Clarence 

 River, showing a decided preference for the large swamps found there. It generally associates 

 and flies about with the White Ibis, but may easily be distinguished from that bird. A friend 

 of mine found several nests ; the birds were breeding in a White Ibis rook'ery, and each nest 

 contained four eggs." 



For an opportunity of first examining and discovering the eggs of this species I am 

 indebted to Mr. James Kershaw, Curator of the National Museum, Melbourne, who kindly 

 forwarded me a set, together with the following notes: — "The eggs of Platalca indanorliyuclia I 

 sent you were obtained by Mr. H. G. Evered, who has supplied me with the following information 

 relative to the taking of them : — ' While duck shooting on Christmas Day, 1893, on one of the 

 swamps along the banks of the Murray River, about sixty miles above Echuca, and when 

 Hearing an Ibis rookery, the man who was poling the boat drew my attentian to a bird llying 

 with the White Ibis (Thrakiovnis stiictipennis) which we had disturbed, at the same time informing 

 me that the bird was almost a stranger in those parts, and that he had not seen one for the 

 previous four or five years. As it would not leave the spot, but continued flying in a circle, we 

 thought there might possibly be a nest near at hand, so we concealed our boat in a bed of reeds 

 and watched. After a little while all the Ibis, and lastly the bird which I now recognised to be 

 a Spoonbill, settled in an adjacent bed of reeds. We then approached as noiselessly as possible, 

 and when within about forty yards it again rose with the Ibis, and I was successful in shooting 

 it. Upon examining the place we found the nest of the Spoonbill amongst those of the White 

 Ibis; it was an open flat structure, composed of broken down reeds and twigs, measuring two 

 feet across, and was placed almost three feet above the water. The eggs, three in number, 

 were in an advanced state of incubation. All the nests of the White Ibis contained young birds 

 from one to two weeks old." 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes four, in number for a sitting, varying from oval to 

 elongate-oval in form, some specimens being slightly pointed at the smaller end, the shell being 

 coarse-grained, minutely pitted and lustreless. They are of a dull chalky-white ground colour, 

 which is more or less covered wuh small irregular-shaped spots, blotches and smears of pale 

 yellowish-brown or reddish-brown ; in some specimens the markings are penumbral, and are 

 larger, predominating on the thicker end, where they assume the form of a broken zone. The 

 colours of the markings vary from yellow to brown and red, and frequently over-lie one another. 

 The set taken by the late Mr. H. G. Evered measures ;— Length (.\) 273 x 173 inches; (B) 

 2-65 X 1-68 inches; (C) 2-6 x 17 inches. Two eggs in the .\ustralian Museum Collection, taken 

 from different nests in Northern (Queensland, measure: — Length (A) 2-5 x 1-64 inches; (B)2-43 

 X 172 inches. The latter specimen is represented on Plate B. XVII., figure 9. A set of three 

 taken on the loth March, 1902, on the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South .\ustralia, 

 measures :~Length (,\) 2-63 x 175 inches; (8)273 ^ 173 inches; (C) 27 x 172 inches. 



