398 APPENDIX. 



HERODIAS ALBA, Linnceus. 

 Australian Egret. 

 Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 549, p. 301. 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson of Tasmania, has forwarded a set of the 

 ewgs of this bird for description together with the following note: 

 " Mr. John Wright found a small colony of Herodias alha, breed- 

 ing in a species of Eucalyptus, overhanging a river on tlie East 

 coast of Tasmania, during 1883. Tlie eggs 1 send you were from 

 a nest containing four, one of which was unfortunately broken in 

 transit." The eggs vary considerably in shape, one specimen (A) 

 is an elongated oval tapering slightly towards the smaller end, (B) 

 is nearly a true oval in form, and (C) a swollen oval ; tliey are 

 of a delicate sea-green in colour, one specimen (B) having a slight 

 limy covering on one side, giving the egg a blanched appearance. 

 The surface of the shell is smooth and lustreless, but all have 

 more or less minute indistinct shallow pittings. Length (A) 



2-13 X 1-43 inch; (B) 202 x 1-43 inch; (C) 1-95 x 1-48 inch. 



♦ 



Hah. Derby, N.W. Australia, 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, Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania, West and 

 Soutli-West Australia. {Ramsay.) 



DENDROCYGNA VAGANS, Eyton. 

 (D. gouldi, Bonaparte.) 

 Whistling Tree-Duck. 

 Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust, Vol. ii., sp. 591, p. 374. 



Mr. George Barnard, of the Dawson River, Queensland, has 

 kindly supplied the following information regarding the nidifica- 

 tion of this species : — 



"Coming home with cattle on the 25th May, 1890, my sons 

 flushed a Duck of some sort off a nest in the grass too hurriedly 

 to see what it was, they left it till next day when one of them 

 rode out to identify the species, it proved to be a " Whistler,' 

 D. vagana, Eyton. The nest was made in the grass, and without 



