100 S^OAfiE, The Golden M crops. [^nd'oct 



The Merops is a bee-eater. I think (though I have not given 

 the subject attention) that it catches blow-flies. This bird uses 

 bright objects as illuminants in its dark burrow. Small pieces 

 of white bone, mussel-shell, and, in fact, anything bright. I have 

 found a pearl shirt-button. Every nest has these natural lamps. 

 In one I examined carefully they were placed at the end of the 

 burrow. The nests are made in light forest country, on an open 

 space, where the sun can shine upon them all day and where the 

 drainage is perfect. 



Foxes have made great inroads into our native fauna, and they 

 have certainly come to stay and be an everlasting curse. Some 

 settlers from the Old Land are never happy till they surround 

 themselves with the pests they were used to. Some want still 

 more. Some time ago I was asked to join a society whose one 

 object was to introduce more beasts and birds from oversea that 

 might be acclimatized here. I have not again heard of this 

 society, but if it exists — and it may — it should be hunted up by 

 the proper authorities and brought to reason. 



Description of Eggs New to Science — Notophoyx 



flavirostris (Sharpe). 



By H. L. White, M.B.O.U., Belltrees, Scone, N.S.W. 



As far as I can learn, no complete description of Australian-laid 

 eggs of this species of Heron has yet appeared. I claim my 

 clutch, therefore, to be the type. 



Gould does not mention the eggs ; A. J^ Campbell, in " Nests 

 and Eggs," states the eggs are imdescribed ; A. J. North omits 

 all mention of the bird ; while G. M. Mathews gives no description 

 of the nest, and queries the clutch of eggs. 



Mr. William M'Lennan, who lately returned from a nine months' 

 trip, on my account, to the coasts of the Northern Territory, has 

 sent me several clutches of the eggs of the Pied Egret {Notophoyx 

 flavirostris), together with skins of the bird. They were taken 

 at an immense heronry on the Gulf of Carpentaria. 



A detailed description of the nest will be given later. For 

 various reasons it is inadvisable to define the exact locaUty of 

 the heronry until Government action has been taken to protect it. 



Clutch, three to four ; long oval, some of the specimens 

 approaching Cormorant shape ; texture of shell smooth, glossy, 

 and finely pitted. Colour bluish-green, much darker than is usual 

 with Herons' eggs generally. Of two clutches, which may be 

 accepted as fairly typical, the measurements, in inches, are as 

 follows: — (i) a, 1.64 x 1.17 ; h, 1.67 x 1.18 ; c, 1.54 x 1.18 ; 

 d, 1.6 x 1.2. (2) a, 1.64 X 1. 21 ; h, 1.54 x 1.18 ; c, 1.58 x 1.18; 

 d, 1.54 X 1.18. 



