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Show 1875.] MR. E. P. RAMSAY ON AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 113 2. EuRosToroDus ALBOGULARIS, Vie.; Gould, B. of Aust. ii. pl. vii. I found this species of Goatsucker tolerably plentiful in certain localities in Queensland, near the headwaters of the Mary river, when I was procuring specimens of Ceratodus in 1873. During the daytime they are seldom if ever seen, except when flushed ; and in every instance it was on the sides of strong thickly timbered ridges that we met with them. For about half an hour just before dusk they frequent open glades and paddocks, and may then be procured on the wing. Their flight is very swift and noiseless. Their single egg is placed on the ground, usually near a small tree or large stone, and is very difficult to discoyer, although the bird may have risen only a few feet in front of you. It is of a pale cream-colour, spotted sparingly over the surface with round and oval-shaped dots of deep blackish brown, with a few spots of blackish slate-colour appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. The length of the egg varies from 1*4 to 1*5 inch, the breadth from 1*04 to 1*01, an average specimen being 1*41 by 1*03. 3. EUROSTOPODUS GUTTATUS, Vig. & Horsf.; Gould, B. of Aust. vol. ii. pl. 8. The Spotted Goatsucker lays an egg similar to that of Eurostopodus albogularis. It is, however, smaller and has fewer markings ; the ground-colour is of a greenish white, glossy, and sparingly marked with round and a iew oval-shaped dots of black and blackish slate*colour, which latter appears as if beneath the surface of the shell. The length is 1*38 inch, the breadth 1 inch. Like the preceding species, this bird selects a thinly timbered stony ridge, where on the bare ground it deposits its egg without making any nest or disturbing any of the stones or gravel in the vicinity. The only specimens I possess were taken by James Ramsay, Esq., near the Merule Creek, in the Riverina district, in the southern portion of New South Wales. 4. CAPRIMULGUS MACROURUS, Horsfield; Gould, B. of Aust. ii. pl. 9. In some former remarks on Australian birds' eggs (Ibis, 1866, p. 326) I described the egg of this bird as that of Eurostopodus albogularis. The specimen was furnished by Mr. Rambird, of Port Denison, who had taken it from the adult of what he at the time believed to be the White-tbroated Goatsucker: in fact Mr. Rambird sent to m e what he believed to be the skin of the identical bird ; but in this he must have been mistaken; and, considering the plumages of these birds are so nearly alike, I do not wonder at the mistake. I have since, however, obtained eggs of undoubted authenticity of all three species of Goatsuckers (Caprimulgus macrourus, Eurostopodus albogularis, and E. guttatus); the first of these I will now proceed to describe. The eggs of the Long-tailed Goatsucker ( C. macrourus) so closely resemble those of the European species that but little difference is P R O C . Z O O L . Soc-1875, No. VIII. 8 |