8 
Ziaty. An average egg is rounded in form, white, earth-stained, 
and measures 094 inch in length hy 0'78 inch in breadth. 
I fab. .South Australia, and South-western Australia. 
MYRISTTCIYORA SPTLORRHOA, G. R. Gray. 
White Nutmeg-Pigeon. 
Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aus/r., 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 
t his species, taken on North Barnard Island by Captain Proctor, 
at the latter end of last season, also the accompanying notes 
kindly communicated by Mr. Win, T. White, of Greenfield, 
relative to the nidification of this tine 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 tin; 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 
n 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. J have frequently found their nests fully twenty miles 
inland, but think most of them build very close to the sea. 
