11 
and barely sufficient to retain the egg in position. The egg is a 
true ellipse in form, pure white, the texture of the shell being 
fine and slightly glossy, length l - 35 x 0 97 inch. Mr. Grime 
informs me that in the neighbourhood of the Tweed River this 
pigeon feeds principally on the ink-weed or dye-berry, a species 
of Phytolacca. 
/fab. Eastern Australia. 
THRESKIORNIS STRKJTIPENNIS, Gould. 
White Ibis. 
Gould, Uandbk. fide. Austr., Vol. ii., sp. 539, p. 284. 
Although by no means a common bird, the present species is 
widely distributed over nearly the whole of the Australian con¬ 
tinent. Mr. K. H. Bennett iias lately found the White Ibis 
breeding in a large extent of flooded country overgrown with tall 
dense Polygonum bushes, situated near the Lachlan River in New 
South Wales, and from some Interesting notes made upon the spot 
I have extracted the following :— 
“On the 30th of November 1890, I started with the intention 
of visiting the breeding place of Geronticns spinicollis, which to 
reach I had to ride through nearly three miles of flooded country, 
where the depth of water varied from a few inches to six feet. Some 
time before reaching my destination, I could see thousands of G. 
spinicollis, flying about and over the breeding place, but what 
chiefly attracted my attention was two white objects appearing 
as if the two large Polyyonuiu bushes were covered with snow. 
As I approached I could see that they were colonies of the White 
Ibis, Threskiornis strictipennis, and when at last I reached the 
spot, T found it was a breeding place, but to my disappointment 
the nests only contained young ones in various stages, from just 
hatched to partly Hedged. As J rode up to the bushes on which 
the nests were placed, the old birds of course flew off, and such of 
the young ones that were strong enough to do so scrambled out 
of the nests and attempted to conceal themselves in the dense 
