OOLOGY OF NEW ZEALAND. ld 
one inch seven and a half lines. The breeding season extends through 
the spring months. I have found a single egg being incubated on 
a shingle bank in the Wilberforce riverbed. 
67. Haematopus unicolor, Forst. 
Black Oyster-catcher, Black Red-bill, Torea.—Breeds out on ‘ the 
plains,’ in riverbeds, or shows its marine habits by rearing its young 
close to the sea. The nest is a mere depression that suits the 
purpose, the eggs vary in number, but two or three is the usual 
complement. They vary from ovoido-conical to broadly oval in shape; 
the ground colour is from deep cream or stone-colour to a pale 
yellowish brown. *“The markings are pretty well distributed over 
the whole surface, yet the broader end has the chief share; the 
largest blotches are irregular in form, sometimes they are compara- 
tively small and rounded, dark brown, blackish brown, purplish inter- 
spersed with small dots of purple and blackish brown, clouded with 
indistinct spots of purplish grey; other sets having markings of large 
irregular-shaped blotches of blackish brown with a shading here and 
there of rich chestnut, clouded with brown and purplish dots and 
specks either deeply coloured or indistinct.” A specimen in the 
writer's collection shows the marks and spots of varying deerees of 
distinctness, as though the colouring matter had not been fixed at one 
time and that the darker and richer toned marks in many places had 
overlaid the fainter coloured splashes. They average a somewhat 
larger size than those of its congener HW. longirostris. The young are 
of a dull sooty brown; in case of necessity they dive and swim with 
facility. Oct. 21, nest with two eggs, close to the beach, near Timaru; 
have found them breeding well into December in Dusky Bay. 
Genus—Strepsilas. 
68. Strepsilas interpres, L. 
Turnstone.—This cosmopolitan wader was, I believe, first observed 
between Ellesmere and the Ninety-mile beach, Nov. 1870. Egg large 
for the size of the bird, pear-shaped. Ground colour of. a pale olive 
or warmish green, daubed and smudged with large and small patches 
of umber; the larger markings are about the thicker end, where some 
have the appearance of having been wiped on obliquely with a brush. 
Altogether this interesting egg presents a singular appearance. 
Length one inch seven lines, breadth one inch one and a half lines. 
(Campbell.) 
(To be continued ). 
RIVER TERRACES.+ 
BY CAPT. ¥F. W. HUTTON, F.G.S. 
~~ 
One of the most remarkable features in the scenery of the South 
Island of New Zealand is the series of river terraces which flank the 
broad shingle-filled vallies on either side. It is true that river 
* “Out in the Open,” p. 293. ; 
++ Paper read before the Phil. Inst. of Canterbury, 2nd July, 1885. 
