668 Mr. J. D. D. La Touche on the [Ibis, 



summer in the mountains, and breeds there in holes of walls 

 and rocks. A single egg without any nest was brought to 

 me from the country, about twenty-five miles north of 

 Cliinwaugtao, on the 11 th of May, 1917, and seven clutches 

 with nests on the 11 th, 15th, 16th, and 23rd of May, 3id of 

 June, and 2nd and 15th of July, 1917. This last clutch 

 was much incubated and somewhat stale, and must have 

 been taken several days previously. The single egg and 

 the four chitches brought on the 11th and 23rd of May, 

 3rd of June, and 2ud of July have the ground-colour white 

 and show very little gloss ; three clutches received on the 

 15th and 16th of May and on the 15th of July are pale 

 green and glossy. Tiiis bird thus lays two very different 

 types of eggs : one, with whitish ground-colour, tinged 

 with orange when the shells are still fresh, speckled or 

 stippled and sometimes blotched with more or less pale 

 burnt sienna over underlying spots (sometimes blotches) of 

 reddish violet. There is almost invariably a ring round the 

 large end, sometimes a cap, the apex being more lightly 

 marked ; and one, which is glossy, with a [tale bluish-green 

 ground-colour, speckled or occasionally blotched with pale 

 burnt sienna over underlying reddish violet. The shape of 

 the white eggs varies from ovate and narrow ovate to oval ; 

 that of the green ones is ovate in two clutches, the eggs 

 of the third clutch being broad ovate or broad oval. 

 Twenty-one white eggs measure from 0*72 x 0"54 in. 

 to 0'77 X 0'56 in. (another smaller egg being 0*69 x 

 0'56 in.). They average 0*75 x O'SJ; in. Sixteen green 

 eggs measure from 0"70 X 0*54 in. to 0'77 x 0"G2 in., and 

 average 074' x 0'57 in. The clutches collected comprise 

 five or six eggs : two white and two green clutches having 

 five eggs each, and two white and one green clutch six 

 eggs each. 



The nests were shallow rough pads or cups made of moss, 

 soft grass strips, and feathers (pheasants' and, in one 

 instance, domestic fowls'). They were all taken from holes 

 in walls or rocks. 



