338 PLOTIN*. 



in pairs and small Flocks aloni; ihe course of the Clarence Iviver. It shows a decided preference 

 for fresh water, and I do not remember ever having observed it at Yaniba, the entrance to the 

 Clarence River, but 1 have observed it singly in small isolated lagoons and waterholes some 

 distance from the main river. I have found it breeding upon several occasions, and it may 

 otten be seen in the same tree as the Little Black and White Cormorant ; sometimes it 

 breeds singly, and shows a decided preference for the Oaks and Tea-trees overhanging the water. 

 The largest colony I visited was at the back of Ulmarra, where seven of these liirds had 

 constructed their nests in the Swamp Oaks that border the creek, the height from the 

 ground varying from twehe to thirty feet. The nest is made of sticks and twigs lined with 

 leaves. I think three eggs is the usual number laid, but some nests contained two eggs only, 

 and upon two or three occasions I have found live. If one or two eggs are tak'en from the nest 

 they do not desert it as other birds frequently do, but keep on laying until the full set is deposited. 

 Both birds sit, and during the breeding season their grating call may be heard a long distance 

 away. From the banks of the Clarence, at Copmanhurst, when the water lias been very clear, 

 I have watched them very plainly diving and catching hsh with ease, and it can move through 

 the water with great rapidity. In September, igog, I saw seven, all males, about a mile below 

 Copmanhurst Wharf, and when disturbed they mounted high in the air and circled round for 

 some time, eventually making south-east. I watched them as far as the eye could see ; had 

 these birds left the females sitting, or were they the advance guard on the look out for some new 

 nesting site, where they would not be disturbed ?" 



The nests of the " Snake-bird " or Darter are large, open and nearly flat but thick bulky 

 structures, formed of sticlcs, twigs and leaves, the saucer-shaped depression being usually lined 

 with the latter material, an average nest measuring in external diameter sixteen and a half 

 inches by twelve inches in depth, and are usually placed at the junction of several pronged 

 nearly upright cr horizontal branches of a Casuanna, Eucalyptus or Melaleuca, at a height ranging 

 from a few feet to fifty or sixty feet in altitude; many nests are often built in the same tree, 

 frequently in trees standing in flood waters, or on the margin of a river or swamp overhanging 

 water. 



The eggs are three to five m number for a sitting, elongated ovals in form, in some specimens 

 tapering more sharply towards the smaller end : the shell is thickly coated with lime, and usually 

 has a few scratches here and there revealing the true colour underneath, which is of a very pale 

 blue or greenish-while. Four eggs of a set of live in the Australian Museum Collection, taken 

 by !Mr. J. L. Ayreson the ist April, i8gi, at Lake LJuloke, near Donald, in the Wimmera District, 

 North-western N'ictoria, measures : — Length (A) 2-41 x i-45 inches; (B) 2'3i x i'42 inches; 

 (C) 2-34 X 1-45 inches; (D) 2-43 x 1-47 inches. ;\nother nest found on the same day contained 

 five recently hatched young. A set of five in the collection, taken near Ulmarra, on the 

 Clarence River, New South Wales, measures : — Length (A) 2-24 x 1-43 inches; (B) 2-2g x 

 1-46 inches; (0)2-47 x 1-52 inches; (D) 2-42 x 1-48 inches; (li) 2-27 x 1-5 inches. A set 

 of three eggs in Mr. Thos. P. Austin's collection, taken on Dunk Island, Queensland, in November, 

 1898, measures: — Length (A and B alike) 2-27 x 1-47 inches; (C) 2-3 x 1-45 inches. 

 Another set of three taken by Mr. H. Neilson, at Thompson Creek, Queensland, on the igth 

 April, igo8, measures: — (A) 2-26 x i'37 inches; (B) 2-25 x 1-4 inches; (C) 2-4 x f42 

 inches. A set of three taken on the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, on 

 the 7th June, 1902, measures: — Length (A) 2-29 x 1-43 inches; (B) 2-3 x 1-43 inches; (C) 

 2'33 X 1-47 inches. 



The figure represents an adult male. 



Gould records that the late Mr. Elsey found the Darter breeding on the \'ictoria River, in 

 the Northern Territory of Soutli Australia, during February and March, laying three or four 



