298 CHAEADKIADai. 



specimens in the Dobroyde Collection, taken by Dr. Ramsay at 

 Macquarie Fields in 1860 are of a stony-white colour with 

 very obscure markings of blackish and pale brown. This bird 

 often resorts to the same spot to breed year after year, even 

 though its eggs be repeatedly taken. 



Two eggs in the Australian Museum Collection measure as 

 follows :— length 2-18 x 1-67 inches ; (B) 2-18 x 1-65 inches. Two 

 eggs in the Dobroyde Collection, taken at Nanama near Yass, by 

 Mr. John Ramsay in October 1866, measure, length (A) 2-35 x 1-6 

 inches; (B) 2-28 x 1-55 inches. 



Specimens taken at Yendon, in December 1878, give the 

 following measurements : — length (A) 2-22 x 1-65 inches j (B) 2-3 

 X 1'63 inches. 



This . bird breeds in September and continues during the 

 four following months. 



Dr. Ramsay describing the eggs of this species in the Proo. of 

 the Zool. Soc. for 1877, p. 335, writes as follows : — "A curious 

 variety of the egg of this species is sometimes found ; it is 

 of a rich creamy-buff, clouded with a duller tint, or irregularly 

 and indistinctly blotched with dull brownish-buff. On showing 

 some of this variety to the late Mr. John Macgillivray, author 

 of the " Yoyage of the Rattlesnake " &c., he assured me they 

 were so remarkably similar to the one found by the late 

 Commander J. M. R. Ince, at Port Essington, and described by 

 Mr. Gould in his " Handbook to the Birds of Australia, Vol. ii., 

 p. 213, as that of Esacus magnirostris, that no doubt as to their 

 identity remained in his mind. On every occasion 'that I have 

 obtained the buff coloured egg, the accompanying one was of the 

 usual heavily blotched variety, with but a few markings at the 

 thin end." 



Hah. Derby, North- West Australia, Cape York, Rockingham 

 Bay, Port Dendson, Wide Bay District, Dawson River, Richmond 

 and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior, 

 Victoria' and South Australia, West and South- West Australia. 



