PANDION. 295 



comparatively smooth, of a clialky nature, and lustreless. In ground colour they vary from a 

 rich yellowish or pale brownish-white to tleshy or huffy-white and almost pure white, which is 

 heavily blotched and spotted with different shades of rich reddish or purplish-brown ; sometimes 

 the markings are large and confluent, and confined chiefly to the larger end, where they form 

 irregular caps, or less freipiently a zone ; in some specimens these markings are large, patch-like 

 and uneven, and different shades of colour partially overlie one another ; in others the markings 

 consist of freckles, dots, spots and small irregular-shaped blotches of dull light red, uniformly 

 distributed over the surface of the shell, while many have fainter underlying markings of purple 

 and purplish-grey, the underlying markings outnumbering the surface ones in some specimens. 

 Of three sets in the Australian Museum Collection, a set of two taken by Mr. fohn Ramsay in 

 the Wide Bay District, Oueensland, on the 15th August, 18S0, measures :— Length (A) 2-56 

 X 173 inches; (B) 2-57 X 172 inches. This set of eggs was heavily incubated, and the latter 

 specimen is represented on I'late B. XI\'., fig. 7. .\ set of three taken by Mr. Ramsay at 

 lindah, on the Mary River, Oueensland, measures :— Length (A) 2-27 x 17 inches; (B) 2-27 

 1-68 inches ; (C) 2'3i x 1-68 inches. This set was fresh, and the former is represented on the 

 same Plate, fig. 9. A set of three taken on a small island lying off Cape Leeuwin, Western 

 Australia, in 1888, measures:— Length (A) 2-52 x 17:', inches; (B) 2-43 x 178 inches; (C) 

 2-41 x 177 inches. The latter is a remarkably handsome specimen, and is represented on 

 Plate B. XI\'., fig. (5. A set of three, taken by Mr. Henry Nielson on an islet almost adjacent 

 to Goldsmith Island, in the Sir James Smith Group, off the eastern coast of Queensland, 

 measures:— Length (A) j-j x 175 inches; (B)2-33 x 178 inches: (C) 2-32 x 177 inches. 



In (Queensland Mr. II. Xielson found e,-gs in May, June and July, while farther south, on 

 the Mary River, Mr. John Ramsay obtained eggs in .Vugust. In North-v^estern Australia 

 Mr. Tom Carter has taken eggs from June to September, but more often in July, and on Ilout- 

 mann's Abrolhos Mr. Chas. G. Gibson found only young birds in the nests in November. 



