Page:The Zoologist, 4th series, vol 5 (1901).djvu/282

256 dark brown blotches and spots, other underlying spots appearing lilac. I shot two specimens of these Terns; there were several pairs there. One bird contained a quantity of grasshoppers, the other small Lizards. The Red-kneed Dotterel's nest was snugly concealed under a tuft of samphire. The eggs (four in number) were richly marked, but just on the point of hatching. The Stilts showed much anxiety about their nests, uttering their plaintive cries, and with fluttering wings feigning lameness to entice one away. The Avocets were very shy, and kept well out of gunshot; their eggs were very similar to the Stilts', but rather larger in size. In the deepest part of the lake was a small island with thick samphire-bushes. Here a pair of Black Swans had built a nest, and had five eggs on May 2nd. On July 27th the young were about as large as a Goose. The family left about the end of September, when the water was rapidly drying.

On May 11th one of the boys, who had been to the boat to wash her down, returned with a Yellow-nosed Albatross (Thalassogeron chlororhynchus) in beautiful plumage, but the end of one wing had been hurt, and slightly crippled it. It was in very poor condition. On the 18th I found a clutch (two) of the Rust-coloured Bronzewing (Lophophaps ferruginea). The eggs were laid on a few sprigs of spinifex between two boulders. On Oct. 25th I also found two fresh eggs of this bird. On May 18th I came across a family of Striated Grass-Wrens (Amytis striata) on the rugged range. The young had just left the nest, which was a bulky structure, with foundation of bark off a species of mulga, then made of soft spinifex, with large opening near the top. It was lined with cotton, and built in a bunch of soft spinifex. It was with the greatest difficulty I secured one of the young; they would not fly, but darted from one bunch of spinifex to another with incredible agility. The male bird sat motionless in the middle of a large fig-tree, until detected by the sharp-eyed native, and I shot it, as I did not think at the time it was a Grass Wren perching so quietly in the dense leaves. On May 22nd I found a nest of the Wedge-tailed Eagle (Uroaëtus audax) with one egg, on the side of a precipitous gorge in the range. The nest was easy of access from above, and contained a freshly-killed Wild Cat of large size. The same nest contained another egg on May 27th, and yet a third on June 4th. I took them all, as I did not want these birds