the Adelaide Museum, some of the specimens procured by Mr. 
Zietz. An average egg is rounded in form, white, earth stained, 
and measures 0*94 inch in length by 0*78 inch in breadth. 
Hob . South Australia, and South-western Australia. 
Myristicivora sPiLOniiuoA, G . R. Gray. White Nutmeg-Pigeon. 
Gould , llandbk. Bds . Austr., Vol. ii., sp. 457, p. 114. 
From the month of October until the end of March the Torres 
Straits or White Nutmeg Pigeon, during most seasons, is freely 
dispersed over the dense brushes and mangrove-lined mouths of 
the rivers of the North-eastern coast of Queensland. Mr. J. A. 
Boyd, of the Herbert River, has kindly forwarded me the eggs of 
this species, taken on North Barnard Island by Captain Proctor, 
at the latter end of last season, also the accompanying notes 
kindly communicated by Mr. Wm. T. White, of Greenfield, 
relative to the nidification of this fine pigeon. 
“ A few years ago these birds came to the scrubs on the Herbert 
River in great numbers, generally arriving about the beginning 
of September and remaining until the end of March, but during 
the last three or four years they have become very scarce, in fact, 
I did not see a score altogether last year. The decrease in their 
numbers is no doubt due to the wholesale slaughter of these poor 
birds during the breeding season, and, unless this is prevented, 
the Torres Straits pigeons will entirely disappear from this district 
within the next four or five years. I have found the eggs of these 
birds during November and December. The nest is a very rude 
structure, consisting simply of a few twigs laid across each other 
in the fork of a horizontal branch, generally not more than fifteen 
or twenty feet from the ground, and so open that the eggs (two 
in number) are visible from below. The birds appear to prefer 
Mangroves and Tea-trees, and do not crowd their nests together, 
although three or four pairs may sometimes build in the same 
tree. I have frequently found their nests fully twenty miles 
inland, but think most of theta build very close to the sea.” 
Mr. Boyd also informs me that they breed sometimes in the 
open forest Eucalypti, and that he has obtained very young 
pigeons miles from the coast. Last year he did not observe any 
pigeons till after Christmas, but obtained two specimens this 
season on the 1 4th of September, and lias since seen several small 
ilocks. M i*. Boyd is of opinion that the cause of the pigeons not 
frequenting the Herbert River district so much as formerly is due 
to the felling of hundreds of acres of scrub that contained the 
berry-bearing trees on which they fed. 
It is worthy of note that the nests of Myristicivora spilorrhoa , 
found by Captain Proctor, Mr. W. T. White, and the late Mr. 
John Macgillivray, each contained two eggs for a full sitting, 
