GEOPEAPS. 276 



in the aya,iry of the Hon. William Macleay, of Elizabeth Bay 

 during 1887 and 1888. Mr. George Masters, the Curator of the 

 Macleayan Museum, informs me that the eggs were two in number 

 for a sitting. They are in form oval, of a faint creamy-white, the 

 surface of the shell being both slightly granular and glossy. Length 

 (A) 1 -3 X 0-93 inch ; (B) 1 -22 x 0-92 inch. These eggs are similar to 

 specimens in the Dobroyde Collection, taken by Mr. J. B. White, 

 on the Barcoo River during July, 1868. July and August are 

 the usual breeding season of his species." (North, P.L.S, N.S. W., 

 Vol. iii., 2nd Series, p. 148.) 



Hah. Derby, N.W. Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 

 Dawson River, New South Wales, Interior, South Australia. 

 {Ramsay.) 



Genus GEOPHAPS, Gould. 



^ GEOPHAPS SCRIPTA, Temmvmh. 



Partridge Bronze-wing. 

 Gould, ffmdhk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 465, p. 130. 



The "Squatter"' or Partridge Bronze Wing is widely dispersed 

 over the interior of Australia, and is never found far away from 

 the vicinity of water, it is terrestrial in its habits and will often 

 allow itself to be almost trodden upon, before taking flight. As 

 an article of food it is considered a great dainty, its flesh fully 

 equalling in delicacy that of the Wonga- Wonga. Its eggs, two in 

 number, are deposited upon the bare ground, sometimes under the 

 shelter of any scanty herbage ; in form they are oval, being some- 

 what slightly pointed at one end, of a faint creamy-white, and the 

 shell smooth and slightly glossy. Specimens taken in New South 

 Whales by Mr. W. Liscombe, and by Mr. George Barnard on the 

 Dawson River, Queensland, measure as follows : — length (A) 1-22 

 X 0-9 inch; (B) 1-21 x 0-89 inch. 



The season of incubation in New South Wales is generally 

 during the months of September and October, but Mr. Barnard 



