554 ON THE EGGS OF TWO SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS, 



DESCRIPTIONS OF THE EGGS OF TWO SPECIES OF 

 AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



By a. J. North. 



No. 1. Mblanodryas picata, Gould. 



This bird has a wide range over the Continent of Australia, 

 specimens having been procured together with the nest and eggs 

 by Mr. James Ramsay in October, 1876 near Bourke, New South 

 Wales ; and last year both Mr. Cairn and the late Mr. T. H. 

 Boyer-Bower obtained several specimens about 80 miles inland 

 from Derby, North- Western Australia. The nest is a small shallow 

 structure, composed of strips of bark, grasses, and roots, held 

 together on the outside with cobwebs, and placed on the dead 

 branch of a tree within a few feet of the ground. Eggs two in 

 number for a sitting, one specimen (A) being of a dark asparagus 

 green faintly tinged with brown on the larger end ; the other (B), 

 with the exception of the smaller end which shows the asparagus 

 green ground coloui', is shaded over all with rich brown, more 

 particularly towards the larger end, which is entirely capped with 

 a darker tint of the same colour. Length (A), 0*8 x 0-59 inch ; 

 (B), 0-78 X 0-6 inch. {From the Bohr. Mus. Coll.) 



No. 2. EuDYNAMis CYANOCEPHALA, Latham. 



(E. flindersi, Gould). 



Mr. George Masters obtained an egg of this species at Gayndah, 

 Queensland, on the 25th of November, 1870. Having shot a 

 female and broken her wing, while pursuing it on the ground the 

 egg was dropped. It is a pointed oval in form, of a dull white 



