25(1 



<ki)1cni;mii).e. 



I.ength (A) 2-38 x 1-55 inches; (13)2-35 ^ ^'57 inches. Two other egj^s in the Collection 

 measure: — Leni;th (A) 2-l8 x 1-67 inches; (1!) 2-i8 x 1-65 inches. Two eg<:;s taken by Mr. 

 II. G. Barnard on the *)th November, 1892, at Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, Queensland, 

 measures: — Length (A) 2-3 x 1-5 inches; (B) 2-24 x i'52 inches. A set of two tak'en by Mr. 

 G. Savidge on the ujth September, 11J03, at Copmanhurst, measures: — Length (A) 2-21 x 1-54 

 inches; (B) 2-35 x f52 inches. 



In Mr. Norman Etheridge's collection is a remarkable set of eggs of the Southern Stone- 

 riover. It comprises for this species the unusual number of four eggs. They were fresh, and 

 all found together in a scantily grass-lmed depression in the earth at Bargo, New South 

 Wales, by Mr. G. Hambridge, on the 20th September, 1906. Presumably it is the result 

 of two females laying in the same nest, for the eggs are of two purely distinct types, varying 

 in the intensity of their markings, also in size. One pair is oval in form with the yellowish-stone 

 ground colour almost uniformly freckled, spotted and blotched with dull olive-brown. Length 

 (A) 2-22 X 1-6 inches; (B) 2-3 x 1-57 inches. Of the other pair one is inclined to rounded- 

 oval, the other oval slightly compressed at the smaller end. The markings on the ground colour 

 of this pair are distinctly larger and darker, varying from a dark olive-brown to a dark brown, 

 with which are intermingled a few underlying irregular-shaped spots and small blotches of dull 

 violet-grey, the markings being fairly evenly distributed over the surface of the shell, except 

 on the larger end of one specimen, where they coalesce and forma well-defined cap. Length 

 (C) 2'33 x i"64 inches; (D) 2'38 x f7 inches. 



Young birds in down, about two days old, are pale brownish-hulf on the back- and wings, 

 passing into very pale bulfy-white on the head, neck, and under parts ; a narrow black line crosses 

 the forehead and meets another at the eye from the base of the bill, and continues through and 

 behind the eye down the sides of the neck and back, almost meeting on the rump ; another black 

 line runs down the wing and sides of the body, meeting at the tail ; a very narrow black line 

 extends down the centre of the crown and nape, with a half circle extending on either sides of 

 the former of the same hue, and a short thick black stripe on either side of the fore-neck. 



August and the five following months constitute the usual breeding season, but eggs are 

 more frequently found front September to the end of November. 



Orthoramphus magnirostris. 



I.AKiiE-lilLLED SHORE-PI.OVEK. 



(Edicneiiius mayiiirosiris, Vieill., Nouv. Diet. dHist., Tom. XXIII. , p. 231 (1819). 



Esacus indcfiiiroslris, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. G (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 

 Vol. II., p. 213 (18i;5). 



Orflidrain/ihus 9na(/nirostri!<, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. lirit. .Mus., Vol. XXIV., p 22 (1.S9G); id., Hand-I. 

 Bds., Vol. I, p. 173 (1891)). 

 Adult .male. — General colour above, inrJndiiiy the forehead, cenf.rt: 0/ l/ie croivn of the head, 

 and hind-iieck pale brown, with darker broivn shaft lines, tvldch are less distinct 011 the lower back, 

 rnnip and npper tail-coverts, the latter having the remains of indistinct blackish-brown cross-bars ; 

 lesser upper wing-coverls brorvii, the longest of them blackish-brown ; the median series grey with a 

 broad hand of white in the middle, forming a conspicuous banil across the wing ; greater 7cing-coverts 

 grey ; primaries blackishhrowu, the first two crossed irith a broad white band on their apical portion, 

 the next on the iuyier web imly, the inner primaries lahite ■ secondaries grey on their outer webs, broicn 



