104 



Camera Craft Notes. 



[Emu 

 2nd Oct. 



Abnormal Clutches. — The accompanying photographs serve to 

 illustrate the unusual clutch of four eggs of the Pied Oyster- 

 catcher, Hcematoptts ostralegiis longirostris {HcBmatopus longirostns), 

 found by me on 13th December, 1914, at Mud Island, near the 

 entrance to Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. The nest, which was 

 just above high water mark, was a depression in the sand lined 

 and surrounded by a few pieces of broken shell, and partly sur- 

 rounded by a curved piece of decaying mangrove. Each egg 

 was uniform both in shape, size, and coloration, practically 



Abnormal Clutch of Pied Oy.iU-i-i.cilchei (Jltiiiutiupus ostyulcj^us longirostris), 

 Mud Island, Port Phillip Bay, Victoria. 



proving that all the eggs were laid by the one bird. They were 

 all slightly addled, and would not, therefore, have been hatched. 

 The problem presented is as to whether the unusual number was 

 too large for the bird to incubate successfully, or simply that the 

 bird had neglected the eggs too long either in storms or in the 

 search for food. After the eggs had been photographed and 

 removed the bird returned and sat on the nest, so that the nest 

 had not been actually forsaken. This problem often presents 

 itself to the oologist. On 15th December, 1915, at Beaconsfield, 

 on the Cardinia Creek, I found the nest of the Helmeted Honey- 



