394 Mr. E. Gibson on the Ornithology of [Ibis, 



lucerne at tbe neighbouring Linconia station, to which field 

 and a similar patch or two of lucerne it was confined (the 

 campo proper being very bare). The date was 28 October. 

 On 22 November T again saw several, but was not successful 

 in finding a nest. Mr. Runnacles, the manager, told me 

 that the lucerne-mower had revealed some nests, generally 

 situated in the foot-print of a horse. I am not aware when 

 it disappeared from Linconia. 



On 20 December, 1916, immediately after my return to 

 the Yngleses, I was surprised to see three males not far 

 from the head-slatiou, in a small dry swamp and grass- 

 covert. Another male I found the same day, about two 

 miles away, in the weed-grown garden of an unoccupied 

 raneho (as in 1901, the campo was again very bare and 

 no water anywhere). But it was not till the 5th of January, 

 when I happened to have occasion to look over a new 

 lucerne-field (but wliich contained nearly as much of the 

 original grasses and herbage as lucerne, and had absolutely 

 been undisturbed by stock or intruders), only a quarter of a 

 mile from where I had observed the three males a fortnight 

 previously, that I was pleased to find a large number, from 

 twenty to thirty, males and females. Mr. Hudson has fully 

 described the habits of both sexes, to which I can only ofi^er 

 my corroboration. The situation was a most ideal one as 

 regards vegetation and shelter, and had been undisturbed 

 all the spring until the mowers began to cut the principal 

 patches of lucerne in January. Unfortunately, as can be 

 gathered, I was somewhat late in my investigations for 

 nests. The scythe-men found two for me : the first con- 

 tained three fully-fledged young, which promptly decamped 

 and were taken charge of by their parents ; the second had 

 two eggs, too far incubated for preservation. Britli nests 

 were mere linings of fine rootlets to a hollow in the ground. 

 The flock or colony was still in evidence when I left the 

 Yngleses about the end of January. 



Eggs bluish white, spotted with reddish brown, increasing 

 towards blunt end. Measurements : 24 X 17 ram. 



