218 
OOLOGICAL NOTES, 
similar in colour and markings to those of its southern congener 
M. gramineus, but is slightly larger, being of a reddish-white 
ground colour, freckled all over with purplish-red markings, which 
predominate as usual on the thicker end of the egg. Length, 
0-8 x 0-58 inch. 
Platalea m e l an o r ii y n c ii a , Reichenbach. 
The Black-faced Spoonbill is generally distributed in favourable 
situations over the north-eastern and northern portions of the 
Australian Continent, its range extending also to the Aru Islands, 
where several examples were procured by the late Mr. S. White, 
and which are now contained in the Reference Collection of the 
Australian Museum. In New South Wales it is a comparatively 
rare species, and is seldom met with except on the mangrove flats 
and swamps adjacent to the northern coastal rivers, but recently 
it has been found breeding on an inland swamp near the extreme 
southern boundary of the colony. For an opportunity of examin- 
ing and describing the eggs of this species I am indebted to Mr. 
James Kershaw, of the National Museum, Melbourne, who has 
kindly forwarded me a set, together with the following note : — 
" The eggs of Platalea melanorhyncha I sent you last week were 
obtained by Mr. H. G-. Evered, who has supplied me with the 
following information relative to the taking of them : — ' While 
duck shooting on Christmas Day, 1893, on one of the swamps 
along the banks of the Murray River, about sixty miles above 
Echuca, and when nearing an Ibis rookery, the man who was 
poling the boat drew my attention to a bird flying with the White 
Ibis ( Threskiornis strictipennis) which we had disturbed; at the \ 
same time informing me that the bird was almost a stranger in 
those parts, and that he had not seen a specimen for the previous 
four or five years. As it would not leave the spot, but continued 
flying in a circle, we thought there might possibly be a nest near 
at hand, so we concealed our boat in a bed of reeds and watched. 
After a little while all the Ibis, and lastly the bird which I now 
recognised to be a Spoonbill, settled in an adjacent bed of reeds. 
We now approached as noiselessly as possible, and when within 
