DACELO. 361 



is reared, but during the two seasons 1896 and 1897, at Coleraine, which were very dry, though 

 two or three eggs were usually laid and hatched, not more than one young bird was reared in any 

 of the nests." 



Mr. Edwin Ashby sends me the following notes from South Australia: — " Dacelo gigas is 

 becoming very common around Adelaide ; wherever the timber is large the hearty note of this 

 species is often heard, even in the suburbs of the city, attracted perhaps by tame ones often kept 

 as pets by residents. I have met with it in every part of Victoria I have visited, wherever the 

 country is timbered, and also found it common on the Blackall Ranges, in South-eastern 

 Queensland." 



Dr. A. M. Morgan writes me : — " Dacelo gigas is common throughout the southern parts of 

 South Australia. It lays two or three eggs, generally two, in any suitable hollow spout of a gum 

 tree, although I have seen a number of nesting places in rotten limbs and tree trunks dug out by 

 the birds themselves. I have never seen this species north of Port Augusta." 



For the purposes of breeding it selects a broken-off hollow limb or hole in the trunk of a 

 tree, or tunnels one in a nest of Termites or White Ant, built on a tree. In New South 

 Wales the latter site is usually chosen whenever available. The eggs are deposited on the 

 decaying wood when laid in cavities of trees, and on the dust in an enlarged chamber at the end 

 of a tunnel when resorting to the nests of the Termites. It has also been known to form its nest 

 in a Stag-horn fern. In the task of tunnelling the sexes work alternately, relieving one another 

 about every ten minutes. The nesting site varies in height according to the locality in which it 

 is found. Generally it is between twenty and forty feet from the ground, sometimes as high as 

 si.Kty feet or more, and on rare occasions in country districts, where unmolested, almost within 

 hand reach. 



The eggs are usually three or four, seldom five, in number for a sittnig. Typically they are 

 a rounded oval in form, occasionally they are elliptical, and sometimes compressed towards one end. 

 When fresh theyareof a beautiful pearly white, and the surface of the shell is very smooth and glossy. 

 Incubated eggs, more especially those laid in a Termites nest lose their pristine loveliness, and 

 even when emptied of their contents, the shell is dull and lustreless. A set of four taken at Lewis 

 Ponds, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) I'Sy x 1-45 inches; (B) i-yS x i'4i inches; 

 (C) i'72 X i'38 inches; (D) 1-73 x i'4 inches. A set of three taken at Lindfield near Sydney, 

 on the 3rd October, 1898, measures: — Length (A) 1-87 x 1-42 inches; (B) 1-87 x 1-4 inches; 

 (C) i'77 X 1-38 inches. 



The breeding season commences in August and continues until the end of January. October 

 and November, however, are the principal months for obtaining the eggs of this species in New 

 South Wales and Queensland. Incubation lasts about eighteen days, and the young birds leave the 

 nesting place when they are about four weeks old. For a week before they essay their first flight 

 they crowd to the entrance of the nesting place and keep up an incessant clamour for food. Their 

 united cries are equally bewildering to one, as are those of the parent bird when heard for the 

 first time. Although I have seen these birds retire and remain away from the tree, while 

 their nesting place in a Termites mound was ruthlessly broken into and robbed of its 

 treasures, they generally valiantly defend their young. As a proof of the determination and 

 courage of these birds, during a Sparrow-shooting match at Walhalla in Victoria, a Brown 

 Kingfisher three times braved the dangers of the field, descending amid the noise and smoke 

 and carrying off with it a dead Sparrow on each occasion. As each was secured it was borne 

 away to a neighbouring tree, where after battering its skull against a branch, it was quickly 

 devoured by the intrepid bird. 



A pair of these birds used to breed every year in a tree close to my house at Roseville, and 

 were very tame, feeding their young in the garden, and were very friendly with a pair of Magpie- 

 Larks. Strange to remark, the only birds that used to interfere with them were a pair of Black 



