Sll ' GEUID^. 



some fifty yards long, in a swamp thirty miles north of the Lachlan 

 River. . The nests werejlarge structures of sticks, loosely interlaced 

 together with a considerable depression in the centre, lined with 

 the soft fibre of decayed bark, and placed on the crooked and 

 gnarled branches of low trees which formed a capital foundation 

 for nests, an advantage the birds had evidently recognized, for 

 every available place was occupied by a nest either of P. flavipes 

 or A. pacifica. The eggs in every instance were four in number, 

 white, rather limey, long and pointed in shape and minutely pitted 

 all over the surface of the shell. Length (A) 2-7 x 1*85 inches ; 

 (B) 2-73 X 1-85 inches ; (C) 3-05 x 1-8 inches ; (D) 2-78 x 1-9 

 inches. 



Sab. Rockingham Bay, Wide Bay District, Richmond and 

 Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior, Victoria 

 and South Australia. {Ramsay.') 



Family GRUID-ffi. 



Genus GEUS, Linnaeus. 

 GRUS AUSTRALASIANUS, Gould. 

 Australian Crane. 

 Gould, Handhk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 543, p. 290. 



This bird is distributed over the greater portions of Australia. 

 It deposits its eggs two in number in a slight depression of the 

 ground, usually on the plains ; they are of a rich cream colour 

 blotched and spotted all over with light chestnut and purplish- 

 brown markings, the latter colour appearing as if beneath the 

 surface of the shell. 



Dimensions of two specimens in the Australian Museum 

 Collection are as follows :— (A) 3-87 x 2-5 inches ; (B) 3-83 x 2-45 

 inches. Two eggs in the Dobroyde Collection are elongated in 

 form and gradually tapering to a nearly sharp point at the smaller 

 apex. -Length (A) 3-93 x 2-22 inches ; (B) 3-92 x 2-32 inches. 



