AVES RHEIDyE. 



15 



that it is impossible to tell from which quarter it proceeds. The soft 

 leisurely notes are the same in both species. The 7?. darwini begins to 

 lay at the end of July — that is, a month sooner than the R. americana ; 

 in all the breeding-habits of the two species there is a wonderful simi- 

 larity. 



"A number of females lay in one nest, the nest being merely a slight 

 depression lined with rubbish ; as many as fifty eggs are sometimes found 

 in one nest. But the R. darwini, as well as the common species, lays 

 many ' JuuxcJio ' or stray eggs, at a distance from the nest. I inspected a 

 number of eggs brought in by a party of hunters, and was surprised at the 

 great differences amongst them in size, form and colour. The average 

 size of the eggs was the same as those of the common species ; in shape 

 they were more or less oval or elliptical, scarcely two being found pre- 

 cisely alike. When newly laid, the eggs are a deep rich green, and the 

 shell possesses a fine polish. They soon fade however; and first the side 

 exposed to the sun assumes a dull pale mottled green ; this colour again 

 changes to a yellowish, and again to a pale stone-blue, becoming at last 

 almost white. The comparative age of each ^<g<g in the nest may be told 

 by the colour of its shell. 



"When the females have finished laying, the male sits on and hatches 

 the young. The young are hatched with the legs feathered to the toes ; 

 these feathers are not shed from the legs, but are gradually worn off as 

 the birds grow old by continual friction against the stiff shrubs amid which 

 they live. In adults usually a few scattered feathers remain, often only 

 the worn down stumps of the feathers ; but I have been told by hunters 

 that the old birds are sometimes caught with the legs entirely feathered, 

 and that these birds frequent plains where there was but little scrub. 

 The plumage of the young birds is of a dusky grey, without any 

 white or black feathers or spots. When a year old they moult, and 

 acquire the spotted plumage of adults, but do not attain the full size till 

 the third year." 



This exceedingly interesting account of the habits of R. darwini is quoted 

 in full. It is probable that the errors in regard to the feathering of the 

 " legs feathered to the toes " grew^ out of the fact of the partial feathering 

 of the tarsus in both old and young birds, a marked character that might 

 readily be exaggerated by the native hunters, for at this period Mr. Hudson 

 had not been able to secure specimens. 



