from Western Australia. 191 



once needed them bent to hold its food better. Length of 

 wing of nestling 2'5 inches (no exposed feather), of adult 2*75. 

 Lengths of quills : — back 1*25, primary 1*5, primary-covert 

 0'35, tail 1. One of these nestlings shews three quills bursting 

 on one flank. The rupture is taking place at 03 inch from 

 the distal end, and from that point the sheath must be worked 

 away, unsplit. I found that this nestling, like the adult, had 

 a marked vitality and resisted death for a long time. 



While wandering along a dry creek near Geraldton my eye 

 was attracted by a patch of white against the clifl". I found 

 it to mark a nest of this species some ten feet above the 

 watercourse, having its entrance two inches broad by one 

 inch high. Thence for a space of fifteen inches downwards 

 was a strong line of carbonate of lime as broad as the entrance 

 to the nest. While I was surveying the nest the owners 

 kept flying to and fro. The bowl of the chamber, which is 

 not lofty (rs inch), is 7 inches across. The stench from 

 the nest indicated that it had been occupied annually for 

 years, and Diptera (blow-flies) had deposited in the tunnel 

 larvae which were five inches long and had riddled the guano. 

 The young, I should say, excrete the waste material in a given 

 direction and that against the light, which means along the 

 tunnel. In passing backwards and forwards through this 

 unsanitary channel the parents get the throat, breast, and end 

 of the tail clotted. The young, at the period above described, 

 flick their tails when they are handled, just as the parents 

 do, shewing early an inherited tendency. The young have 

 powerful voices, sounding like the noise of a grindstone at 

 work, to which a jerk is regularly given during each revolution. 

 Every few revolutions a special eff'ort is made by the bird, 

 causing a sound as if spasmodic pressure had been applied 

 to the handle of the stone. 



There were four young in the nest. 



50. Halcyon sanctus. Sacred Kingfisher. (Hall's Key, 

 p. 57.) 



One sk. ad. ? . 27.10.99. Long Island, Pelsart Group, 

 Houtman's Abrolhos. 



