318 
« At Shaheunj, Pergunnah Bhurrur, District Mirzapore, I 
saw on the 6th March, 1869 a pair of these birds building their 
nest which was placed in a mango tope, in a tall tree. There 
were no eggs, as the birds had not then laid, but the nest was as 
complete as it could be. 
The nest was like that of IL Govinda, and placed on a very 
high branch.” 
Of the nidification of the nearly allied H. Leucosternus of 
Australia, Mr. Gould says—“It breeds from the beginning of 
July to the end of August. I succeeded in finding two nests, 
each of which contained two eggs; but I am told that three are 
sometimes found. The nest is formed of sticks, with fine twigs 
or coarse grass as a lining; it is about two feet in diameter, 
and built in a strong fork of the dead part of a tree; both of 
those I found were about thirty feet from the ground, and 
about two hundred yards from the beach. The eggs which are 
about 2°17 in length, by 1°67 in breadth, are of a dirty white, 
having the surface spread over with numerous, hair-like streaks 
and very minute dots of reddish brown, the former prevailing 
and assuming the form of hieroglyphics, these singular markings 
being most numerous at one end, sometimes at the larger, at 
others at the smaller. The difference even occurring in the two 
egos of the same nest.” 
Mr. E. Ramsay, in regard to the same species, remarks, in 
the Ibis for 1865—“In almost every instance the examples 
found by Mr. Rainbird were placed near the tops of the larger 
trees in belts of mangroves skirting the edges of salt water 
swamps and marshes in the neighbourhood of Port Denison, 
They were composed of twigs and dead branches of mangrove, 
lined with a finer material. One, from which that gentleman 
shot the bird, and brought me the egg upon which she was sit- 
ting, was lined with tufts of lichen ; and in this instance, the 
ege was placed upon various fish-bones, shells and claws of 
crabs, &e.; the edges and sides were beautifully ornamented with 
long streamers of bleached sea-weed, which gave the nest a 
novel and pleasing appearance. The egg has a rough ground 
of a bluish white colour, with a few minute spots of brownish 
red near the larger end, it is ofan oval form. 2°08 in length 
by 1°50 in breadth.” 
This Australian race which differs from the Indian in the ab- 
sence of the median black stripes of the white feathers, and 
which was figured by Viellot, as MHaliastus Girrenera (Gal. 
dois. T. 10) without, however, his discriminating it from the In- 
dian species, extends to Celebes, all the Moluccas and the New 
Guinea group, while intermediate both as regards geographical 
