NOTES ON THE OOLOGY OF LORD HOWE 



ISLAND. 



Our knowledge of the nesting and eggs of the Lord Howe Island birds is very 

 limited, and until an excursion, fitted out by the Trustees of the Australian 

 Museum, in September, 1887, very little had been done towards recording- 

 authentic information relative to the breeding season, or the eggs of the birds 

 found there. Of the sixty species recorded in Dr. Ramsay's u List of birds 

 found in Lord Howe Island," only eleven are strictly peculiar, and of only 

 one of these is the nest and eggs known ; much remains therefore to be done, 

 and it is to be hoped that any one favourably situated for acquiring further 

 information, will not fail to make notes on this interesting subject. 



Halcyon vagans, Lesson. 



Mr. E. H. Saunders, who has lately returned from Lord Howe Island, 

 states that he found this bird breeding freely during the month of November, 

 1887, in the hollow limbs of trees. The eggs, five in number, for a sitting, 

 are rounded in form, and of a beautiful pearly-white tint. The dimensions 

 of a set are as follows : — Length, (A) l'14x0'92inch(this specimen is somewhat 

 sharply pointed at one and j (B) 1 -08 x 0-91 inch \ (0) M2 x 0-91 inch ; (D) 

 11 x 0-9 inch ; (E) 1-08 x 0-92 inch. 



Aplonis fuscus, Gould. 



According to Mr. Saunders, the nidification of this bird is entirely different 

 from that of the allied genus Calornis, of the Australian continent, resorting 

 to the hollow branches of trees to construct their nests ; several were found 

 with young birds, but only one containing eggs. In every instance these nests 

 were built of dried grasses, and placed in a hollow at the end of a branch. 

 Eggs, four in number, for a sitting, varying somewhat in form even in the 

 same set ; two eggs of this set are swollen ovals, being thickest at the centre, 

 and slightly pointed towards each end, the other two are long ovals, slightly 

 tapering at one end only ; in colour they are of a pale bluish green, freckled 

 with markings of a reddish and wood-brown tint, equally disposed over the 

 surface of the shell, some of the markings are very indistinct. Length, (A) 

 1-97 x 0-78 inch; (B) 1-06 x 0-77 inch (thick ovals; (C) 1-14 x 0-76 inch; 

 (D) M2x0-75 inch. 



Chalcophaps chrysochlora, Wagler, 



The nest of this bird is composed of a few thin twigs placed crosswise on the 

 horizontal branch of a tree, not far from the ground. The eggs are two in 

 number, oval in form, of a light creamy-white colour, and give the average 

 measurement of of 1*47 inch x 0*8 inch. 



