Vol- >^<] SHViEuy\:, Sludy of Birds' Eg^s. 201 



Among the Raptores there is a set (J) of the rare— very rare — 

 eggs of the Red (ioshawk {Hrythrotrioychis radiatus), and, among 

 the Fowls, the beautiful and very small eggs of the Painted 

 Quail (Tiiniix varia) {I). No fewer than five species of the Wood- 

 Swallows, of the genus Artamus, are in this collection. They are 

 heavily speckled, and much larger in jiroportiou than the eggs 

 laid by our American Swallows. 



The well-known Dacdo gigas—i\\e Laughing Kingfisher— is 

 rei)resented by live or six sets, and the Black Swan [Chcnopsis 

 atrata) by one set (^). There are four sets of the Butcher-Bird 

 {Cracticiis destructor), and the rare eggs of the Fig-Birds are 

 represented by the Yellow Fig-Bird {Sphecotheres fiaviventris) (|) 

 Plate XX. and the Fig-Bird (S. maxillaris) {\). Fine eggs of the 

 Orioles are also met with, as the Northern Oriole {\) {Oriolits a finis) 

 (Plates XIX. and XX.) and the Yellow Oriole {(). ftavicinctus.) 



Ihe egg of the Bell-Bird [Oreoica cristata) I show in Plate XX. (J) 

 among those of other species ; in fact, there are several described 

 under the figures that are not referred to in the body of the 

 article here. In such a wealth of material I found it difficult to 

 make selections for photographic illustrations, and this fact can 

 the more readily be appreciated when one comes to know that 

 there are nearly as many species of birds in the Australian avi- 

 fauna as there are in our A.O.U. Check-list for this country. I 

 have before me a printed " List of the Birds of Australia," com- 

 piled by A. F. Basset Hull (Sydney, 1909), and, as the trinomials 

 are not used, I was more than surprised to find no fewer than 

 885 species of birds listed for Australia alone. Many of the 

 genera contain a large number of species, as, for example, Platy- 

 cercus, where there are 15 ; Acanthiza, with 22 ; Malurus, with 20 ; 

 the same for Pachycephala ; Ptilotis, with 29, and so on, many of 

 the genera containing from eight to a dozen species. This 

 " List " starts in with a Dvomceus and terminates with a Corcorax, 

 and for this reason the Fowls and Pigeons, the Rails and their 

 allies, are all listed before we arrive at the Grebes, Penguins, 

 Petrels, and so on. Several of the Australian species seem now 

 to be entirely extinct, as Dromceus diemenensis and D. peroni, 

 the Notornis albus, and two representing the genus Nestor — viz., 

 A'', prodiictus and N. norfolcensis ; also Cyanorhamphus sub- 

 flavescens, and I dare say others, thus reducing the list to 878, 

 while some other forms are now rapidly disappearing, as they are 

 everywhere else in the world. 



While noting these facts, my attention was attracted to a set 

 of very small eggs, three in number, in one of the trays. They 

 are pure white, and lack very little of being bluntly elHpsoidal 

 in form, or, in other words, the pointed ends differ but little 

 from the butts. But the very unusual feature of each and all 

 of these little eggs is that they are encircled at their middles by a 

 band composed of minute specks and dots of brown and violet 

 thickly clustered together. A few fine dots occur elsewhere on 

 these eggs, but on the whole at first glance they strike one as 



