APPENDIX. 397 



three or more upright pronged forks of the branches of small 

 " Box " trees, and were both composed of bunches of " Box " 

 leaves piled up in the forks to the height of about a foot, the top 

 being slightly hollowed out, but without any other lining. On 

 the 26th of November I again visited this swamp and found two 

 more Ibises' nest, both of which contained young lately hatched, 

 (one three, the other four) covered with black down. One of the 

 nests from which I had taken the eggs on the 2nd iiistant, had in 

 the meantime been appropriated by the little Pink-eared Duck 

 ( Malacorhynchus menibranaeeus,) and now contained five Duck's 

 eggs enveloped in the usual manner in a mass of down." 



In the letter accompanying the above description Mr. Bennett 

 writes as follows : — " You will see at the conclusion of the 

 description, that had I continued my search at the time I found 

 the eggs, the probability is that instead of getting six eggs I 

 should have procured thirteen, but I was so benumbed with cold 

 swimming about for hours with my clothes on that it was with 

 great diflS.culty I reached the land, and had I been half an hour 

 longer in the water, the chances are that the first recording of 

 this bird's eggs in Australia would have fallen to some other 

 person." 



A set of the above eggs are lengthened ovals in form, and are 

 of a deep greenish-blue colour, the shell being slightly rough in 

 texture and lustreless ; they measure as follows, length (A) 1-94 'i 

 X 1-33 inch ; (B) 195 x 1-35 inch ; (C) 1-97 x 1-31 inch. A set ' 

 in the Australian Museum taken on the same date, vary from 

 pyriform to a lengthened oval, one specimen being somewhat 

 sharply pointed at one end. Length (A) 2-16 x 1-48 inch ; (B) ^ 

 2-21 x 1-4 inch; (C) 2-2 x 1-47 inch. The eggs of the Glossy ^ 

 Ibis can readily be distinguished from those of any other Austra- 

 lian bird, by the intensity and depth of their colouring. 



Sab. Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, 

 Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 

 Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 

 Interior, Victoria and South Australia. (Eamsay.) 



