from Western Australia, 191 
once needed them bent to hold its food better. Length of 
wing of nestling 2'5 inches (no exposed feather)^ of adult 2'75. 
Lengths of quills : — back 1*25, primary 1'5_, primary-covert 
0"35j tail 1. One of these nestlings shews three quills bursting 
on one flank. The rupture is taking place at 0'3 inch from 
the distal end, and from that point the sheath must be worked 
away, unsplit. I found that this nestling, like the adult, had 
a marked vitality and resisted death for a long time. 
While wandering along a dry creek near Geraldton my eye 
was attracted by a patch of Avhite against the cliff. I found 
it to mark a nest of this species some ten feet above the 
watercourse, having its entrance two inches broad by one 
inch high. Thence for a space of fifteen inches downwards 
was a strong line of carbonate of lime as broad as the entrance 
to the nest. While I was surveying the nest the owners 
kept flying to and fro. The bowl of the chamber, which is 
not lofty (1'5 inch), is 7 inches across. The stench from 
the nest indicated that it had been occupied annually for 
years, and Diptera (blow-flies) had deposited in the tunnel 
larvae which were five inches long and had riddled the guano. 
The young, I should say, excrete the waste material in a given 
direction and that against the light, which means along the 
tunnel. In passing backwards and forwards through this 
unsanitary channel the parents get the throat, breast, and end 
of the tail clotted. The young, at the period above described, 
flick their tails when they are handled, just as the parents 
do, shewing early an inherited tendency. The young have 
powerful voices, sounding like the noise of a grindstone at 
work, to which a jerk is regularly given during each revolution. 
Every few revolutions a special effort is made by the bird, 
causing a sound as if spasmodic pressure had been applied 
to the handle of the stone. 
There were four young in the nest. 
50. Halcyon sanctus. Sacred Kingfisher. (Hall's Key, 
p. 57.) 
One sk. ad. ? . 27.10.99. Long Island, Pelsart Group, 
Houtman's Abrolhos. 
