THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 85 



" Roughly described, the egg is rich sahnon pink, with a 

 cloudy ring of a darker colour round the larger end ; length, 

 i-i^g- (1.44) inches ; breadth, i^V (i-o6) inches." 



Writing again later in the season, Mr. Cornwall says : — " Here 

 is a note about the Koel which may be of interest. On two 

 different occasions this year my attention was drawn to the 

 young of that species being fed by two other birds. In each 

 case it was the Yellow-tinted Honey-eater, Ptilotis flava, and the 

 Helmeted Friar Bird, Philemon buceroides. I thought it rather 

 remarkable that those two distinct birds should be feeding the 

 one nestling. Mr. B. Gulliver can endorse the above state- 

 ment." 



Channel-bill, Scythrops novce-hollandice. 



This bird appears to be a wanderer over the whole of Australia, 

 but has not yet been recorded for the south-western portion, and 

 sometimes reaches Tasmania. It is also found in New Guinea 

 and other islands beyond. 



The Channel-bill is manifestly interesting, because it is the 

 largest of Australian cuckoos. It is sometimes called in the 

 interior the " Flood Bird," because of its arrival with such occur- 

 rences. 



Gould has described an egg of this bird taken from the oviduct. 

 Mr. North has described a similar immature egg from a bird shot 

 on the Macleay River during the first week in November, 1884. 

 An egg collected for me (taken from a Crow's or Raven's nest, if 

 I recollect rightly) at Cooper's Creek was, unfortunately, broken in 

 transit. 



A mature egg described by me before the Royal Society of 

 Victoria, 1892, was taken in October, 1880, near Inglewood, 

 Queensland, where the Channel-bills were fairly numerous, by Mr. 

 Herman Lau, and, remarkable as it may appear, from the nest 

 of the Sparrowhawk (Accipiter), together with an egg of the bird of 

 prey. On another occasion Mr. Lau took a pair of Channel-bills' 

 eggs, together with a pair of the Black-backed Magpie's, Gym- 

 norhina tibicen, all fresh, from the nest of the latter, while the 

 previous season he took a pair of young Channel-bills from the 

 nest of a Strepera, probably S. gra.culhia, and forwarded them to 

 the Queensland Museum. It would be indeed interesting to 

 learn if the same Channel-bill deposited the two eggs in the foster 

 bird's nest, or were they laid by separate birds. The probable 

 number of eggs laid by the female Channel-bill is three. Mr, G. 

 A. Keartland found that number of yolks in a bird he was 

 dissecting. 



The following Queensland note, by Mr. E. M. Cornwall, 

 appeared in the Victorian Naturalist, June, 1890, taken from his 

 field book under date 20th December, 1890 : — " My attention was 



