306 Mr. P. L. Sclater on the known Species of Sitta. 



tlien^ however, I have obtained specimens from Messrs. Mac- 

 gillivray and Wilcox from the Clarence River, procured, I be- 

 lieve, from a nest found in a lagoon in the neighbourhood of 

 Grafton. 



Mr. Gould, in his magnificent work on our Australian birds, 

 having given us beautiful figures of the nest and young, as well 

 as of the adult birds, it will be useless for me to redescribe them 

 here. I shall therefore not take up time by going over old 

 ground, but proceed at once to say what the eggs are like. 

 They vary in form from being quite oval and pointed equally at 

 both ends, to almost round or pyriform as in some of the 

 Plovers. When of this last shape, they are usually placed in 

 the nest with their small ends pointing inwards. In length 

 they are from 13^ to 14>^ lines, and in breadth from 10 to 11 

 lines. The ground-colour is a light yellow olive, becoming 

 with time much darker. The whole surface is crossed and re- 

 crossed with irregularly curved and rather bi'oad black lines, 

 turning and twisting in every direction, and, in some examples, 

 with shorter lines, making various ill-shapen letters or figures, 

 while in others these markings take the form of blotches. 

 Appearing beneath the shell are deep yellowish-brown streaks 

 and hair-lines recrossing them on the surface. Some specimens 

 are more numerously streaked than others, and have the broader 

 black lines predominating ; in others the fine hair-lines and those 

 of yellowish brown are most visible. The eggs are four in 

 number; and the nest, which is composed of sedge, grass, and 

 aquatic plants, is placed close to the water^s edge, or upon any 

 bunches of weeds or grass growing in the water, which may be 

 sufficiently strong to bear its weight. 



XXVII. — Notes on Krilper's Nuthatch and on the other known 

 Species of the genus Sitta. By P. L. Sclatee, F.R.S., &c. 



(Plate VII.) 



Dr. Hartlaub having kindly forwarded for my examination a 

 pair of the newly discovered Nuthatch of Asia Minor (lately 

 described bv Herr von Pelzeln of Vienna, as noted in the last 



