9 
Mr. Boyd also informs me that they breed sometimes in the 
open forest Eucalypti, and that lie has obtained very young 
pigeons miles from the coast. Last year ho did not observe any 
pigeons till after Christmas, but obtained two specimens this 
season on the 1 I th of September, and has since seen several small 
flocks. Mr. Boyd is of opinion that the cause of the pigeons not 
frequenting the Herbert River district so much as formerly is due 
to the. fellin'' 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 sjrilorrhoa, 
found by Captain Proctor, Mr. W. T. White, and the late Mr. 
John Macgillivray, each contained two eggs for a full sitting, 
while those found by Gilbert at Port Essington either contained 
a single egg or a single young bird. 
The eggs vary in shape from an ellipse to an elongated oval, 
are pure white, the texture of the shell being fine, one specimen 
being lustreless, the other slightly glossy. Length (A) L8 x L3 
inch; (B) 1*83 x L2 inch. 
It may not be out of place to mention here that migratorial 
birds are in some seasons more abundant in the localities they 
usually visit than others, which is not always due to climatic 
influences or an abundance of food. The Top-knot Pigeons (Loplio- 
laimw antarctic w), especially, have been very numerous this 
season in New South Wales, my attention first being drawn to 
the fact by the unusually large number of these pigeons that were 
exposed for sale in the poulterers’ shops about Sydney during 
July and August. 
On the 9th of August some notes were contributed to the 
“Sydney Mail,” referring to the unusual number of Top-knot 
Pigeons which were on the brushes at that time in the neighbour¬ 
hood of Gosford, several of which had made nests and laid their 
eggs. Mr. W. J. Grime also informs me that “the Top-knot 
Pigeons were particularly plentiful this season in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the Tweed River, and that flocks of them, numbering 
some thousands, could be seen during September, flying round at 
