SCYTHKOP.S. 35 



at the foot of the range at Kedlynch. They used to go about in flocks of from six to fifty 

 individuals, this was during September and October, and there was no sign of their pairing. 

 They used to visit the Fig trees on the banks of the Barron Ki\er and Freshwater at regular 

 feeding hours. 1 have never had the good fortune to find the eggs of Scythrops iwvce-lwllandicr, 

 but I have seen the Raven (Coiviie misti'iilis) and the Pied Crow-Shrike or ' Black Magpie ' 

 (Stnffi'd •inuuUiu'i) feeding young Channel-bills as foster-parents." 



An egg in Dr. (i. Hurst's collection, taken from the oviduct of a bird siiot during the first 

 week in November, 18S4, at Kempsey, on the Macleay River, New South Wales, is of a dull white 

 ground colour, with faint purplish dots and spots, and a few of light yellowish-brown, with which 

 are intermingled on the thicker end underlying markings of brown and pale purplish-brown 

 forming on one side a confluent patch. All the markings are ill-defined, and the egg closely 

 resembles a very large and washed-out specimen of G;'(7//(«(! /iVfz^d. Length 1-5 x 1-05 inches. 

 The two eggs in the Australian Museum collection, received from Mr. Schrader in 1888, are 

 oval in form, the shell being coarse-grained and slightly lustrous. One is of a warm buff ground 

 colour, which is covered with freckles, clots, spots and small irregular-shaped blotches of different 

 shades of brown and similar underlying markings of pale purplish-brown and violet-grey, the 

 markings being larger on the thicker end. Length 175 x i-2 inches. The other specimen is 

 of a lighter ground colour, and is thickly and uniformly covered all over with pepper and 

 salt markings of different shades of brown and umber-brown, intermingled with similar under- 

 lying markings of violet-grey. Length i-8j x 1-23 inches. These eggs are figured on Plate 

 B. XXL, Figures 11 and 12. .\n egg received on loan from Mr. H. L. White, of Belltrees, 

 Scone, is a thick oval in form, tapering somewhat sharply towards the smaller end, lustrous, 

 and of a pale greyish-buff ground colour, which is thickly covered with faint irregular-shaped 

 spots and blotches of different shades of pale brown, intermingled with similar irregular-shaped 

 underlying markings of faint purplish and violet-grey, and which are larger on the thicker end, 

 where they form a very small and irregular-shaped cap ; the underlying spots and blotches give 

 the general colour of this egg a dull greyish shade. Length i-6 x riS inches. 



-Vn egg of the Channel-bill taken from a nest of Stnpci-a i;raiiilina, which also contained two 

 eggs of that species, by Mr. S. Robinson at Warkon Station, on the Condamine River, South- 

 western Queensland, is an elongate-oval in form, somewhat pointed at the smaller end, the shell 

 being comparatively close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous ; it is of a pale yellowish-brown 

 ground colour, spotted and blotched all over, but particularly at the larger end, with brown and 

 inky-grey, the latter colour forming clouded patches, in some places large, in others small 

 and very faint, and consisting chiefly of underlying markings. Length i'82 x i-iS inches. In 

 shape, character and colour of markings this egg resembles that of one of the Waders, and more 

 particularly a small and pointed one of Ihirhinns ^yaUafins. Mr. Robinson saw the Channel-bill 

 sitting on the Pied Crow Shrike's nest, which flew around and made a great noise as he was 

 taking the eggs. 



Immature birds resemble the adults, but have the feathers of the upper parts, including the 

 wings, broadly tipped with brown, passing into white on some of the inner primaries; the 

 feathers of the head are also mottled with brown, the breast and abdomen being transversely 

 barred with dull dusky-grey, with a slight pale ochreous-brown wash. Wing 12-75 inches. 



