BY ALFRED J. NORTH. 59 



sequently the specimen from which his description was taken was 

 forwarded to England to Mr. Gould, who figured it in his " Supple- 

 ment to the Birds of Australia." For many years after but few 

 of these birds had been obtained, and in 1883 evidently there 

 was not an example of it in the British Museum when Dr. Sharpe 

 prepared the seventh volume of the Catalogue of Birds, for on 

 page 106 he there transcribes Sir Frederick McCoy's original 

 description and his accompanying note giving the locality where 

 the bird had been procured. By some oversight, however. Dr. 

 Sharpe has erroneously recorded the habitat of this species as the 

 "Interior of South Australia." The Rufous-headed Bristle bird 

 is exclusively confined to the dense scrubs of south-western 

 Victoria, and is probably more abundantly distributed in the 

 ranges and gullies of the Otway Forest than elsewhere. The 

 settlement of portion of this area, and the forming of marine 

 resorts at Loutit and Apollo Bays, has proved that this bird is by 

 no means a rare species, although, like its congeners, it keeps out 

 of sight as much as possible, and its note is more often heard than 

 the bii^d is seen. Two nests of this species found in the thick 

 undergrowth of gullies in the Otway Forest were oval-shaped 

 structures somewhat loosely put together with an entrance at the 

 side, and were made externally of dried plant-stems, wiry fibrous 

 roots and dried grasses, the inside being almost exclusively 

 lined with rootlets. These nests were found in November, and 

 each contained two fresh eggs. Two eggs now before me are of 

 a dull purplish-white ground colour, one specimen having numerous 

 freckles and spots of purplish-brown evenly distributed over the 

 surface of the shell, and the larger end slightly tinged with slaty- 

 grey; the other is similar in colour, l)ut is more finely and thickly 

 marked, and has a darker cap of confluent markings on the larger 

 end. These eggs are in form slightly swollen ovals, and are very 

 thin-shelled. Length (A) 1-07 x 0-84 inch; (B) 1-09 x U-85 inch. 

 In the original description of this species in the Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural Histor}', and which has been ti^anscribed by 

 Mr. Gould in his "Supplement to the Birds of Australia," the 

 length is there given as 7 inches 9 lines. A young female now 



