38G PODICIPKOID.F.. 



of some dead branch fallen in the water, and averages from a foot to fifteen or eighteen inches 

 i;i diameter, as they are variable in size, some being more neatly built than others. As a 

 rule, however, the nest looks as if some one had collected a rounded and ilatened mass of aquatic 

 plants and thrown it in the water. The eggs are deposited in a small c;i\ ity in the top, all 

 the nesting materials being wet, as are the eggs, and the nest sways about with every motion 

 ol the water on a boat or person approaching it. 



The eggs are four to seven in number for a sitting, live being usually found, six rarely, 

 and I have known the latter number exceeded only on the occasion referred to by Mr. H. (i. 

 Barnard. Typically they are ellipses in form, and of a pale bluish-white, which is thinly 

 coated with lime; in some specimens the lime is deposited e\'enly all o\ er the surface; on others 

 it is irregular and rouLjh and in the form of small nodules; occasionally the limy covering is 

 scratched with the liinl's claws, revealing the true colour underneath. When fresh they are 

 of a faint bluish-while, but soon become stained with the surrounding decaying vegetable matter, 

 and all shells are foumi, according to the length of time they ha\ e been deposited, from pale 

 brown to rich reddish-brown. A set of seven taken by Mr. H. (i. Jiarnard, at Coomooboolaroo, 

 on the second March, 1S93, measures ; — Length (A) 1-31) x o-()i) inches; (B) 1-52 x 1-04 

 inches; (C) 1-43 x o'gS inches; (D) 1-45 x 1-05 inches; (H) 1-48 x 1-05 inches; (F) 

 1-48 x 1-05 inches; ((i) 1-45 x 1-03 inches. A set of five tak'en on a swamp on South 

 Grafton Common, New South Wales, on the 18th November, i8gS, measures: — Length (A) 

 1-39 X 0-92 inches; (1>) 1-42 x 0-93 inches; (C) 1-31 x o-gS inches; (D) 1-37 x 0-98 

 inches; (L) 1-41 x i inches. A set of five taken by Mr. Thos. P. Austin on Cobborah Station, 

 Cobborah, on the 17th (Jctober, 1909, measures: — Length (A) 1-36 x 0-98 inches; (1:!) i-:;5 x 

 0-97 inches; (C)i-3i x <)-98 inches; (D) 1-42 x 0-96 inches ; (li) 1-4 x 0-92 inches. 



Mr. Austin forwarded me a skin of a young one in the down, to which he attached the 

 following note: — " rodicipis iioi\r-Iiol/iiiidiic, young male, between two and three weeks old. 

 Shot by me on Cobborah Station, on the loth INIarch, 1910. 'J'he nest where this young one 

 was hatched was in the same Willow-tree, growing in the water, as you saw me swim to, and 

 take a set of eight eggs of Trilioiiyx ViUtraln. Extreme tip of hill llesh colour, then a black band, 

 followed by another band of flesh colour ; tarsus and feet blackish-brown, tinged with green; 

 tibia joint dark green ; iris dark brown." It is dark smoky-brown above, with which is inter- 

 mingled a few greyish-white hairs here and there in the down ; wm^s dull black and similarly 

 freckled with white ; entire head and neck black, with a narrow streak above the eye of buff, 

 and a shorter one of the same colour on each side of the nape ; sides of head, throat and neck 

 longitudinally streak-ed with white; fore-neck' and sides of the body and lower portion of the 

 abdomen intermingled smoky-i;rey and pale buff'y-white, the centre of the breast and abdomen 

 dull white, the latter with a faint wash of greyish-brcjwn. Total len.L;th 7 inches, wing 0-85 

 inches. 



In Eastern Australia the breeding season usually commences in October, and eggs may be 

 found as late as February. Whether it nurses two broods in the season I am unable to tell, 

 but it is often found breeding in the warm and t;enial weather of March and .\pril. In South- 

 western Australia Mr. Tom Carter records that this species leaves Broome Hill District by the 

 end of December. 



Podicipes poliocephalus. 



H(iAKY-HEALii;iJ (ilJKHfv 



Podiceps }ioliucejih<duti, Jard. and Selby, 111. Orn., Vol. 1., p. 13, pi. 13 (1827); Gould, Bds. Austr., 

 fol. Vol. VII., pi. 82 (1848). 



Podice/is nestor, Gould, Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. .''il2 (lS(i,5). 



