314 
GRUID.E. 
some fifty yards long, in a swamp thirty miles north of the Lachlan 
River. The nests werejlarge structures of sticks, loosely interlaced 
together with a considerable depression in the centre, lined with 
the soft fibre of decayed bark, and placed on the crooked and 
gnarled branches of low trees which formed a capital foundation 
for nests, an advantage the birds had evidently recognized, for 
every available place was occupied by a nest either of P. Jlavipes 
or A. pacifica. The eggs in every instance were four in number, 
white, rather limey, long and pointed in shape and minutely pitted 
all over the surface of the shell. Length (A) 2-7 x 1-85 inches ; 
(B) 2-73 x 1-85 inches; (C) 3'05 x 1-8 inches; (D) 2-78 x 1'9 
inches. 
Hab. Rockingham Bay, Wide Bay District, Richmond and 
.Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior, Victoria 
and South Australia. (Ramsay.) 
Family GRUID^l. 
Genus GEUS, Linnaeus. 
GRUS AUSTRALASIANUS, Gould. 
Australian Crane. 
Gould , Handbk. Bds. Ausl., Vol. ii., sp. 543, p. 290. 
This bird is distributed over the greater portions of Australia. 
It deposits its eggs two in number in a slight depression of the 
ground, usually on the plains; they are of a rich cream colour 
blotched and spotted all over with light chestnut and purplish- 
brown markings, the latter colour appearing as if beneath the 
surface of the shell. 
Dimensions of two specimens in the Australian Museum 
Collection are as follows :—(A) 3 - 87 x 2 - 5 inches ; (B) 3'83 x 2'45 
inches. Two eggs in the Dobroydo Collection are elongated in 
form and gradually tapering to a nearly sharp point at the smaller 
apex. Length (A) 3‘93 x 2 - 22 inches ; (B) 3 - 92 x 2 - 32 inches. 
