50 CONTEIBL'TrOXS TO AUSTRALTAX OOLOGY. 



ground and hidden by the grass. The eggs are of a dull olive 

 brown, nearly of a uniform bronze tint, usually without markings, 

 one specimen has an indistinct ring of minute dots on the larger end, 

 where it forms a patch of a darker shade, the eggs are three to 

 four in number; length 0'78 x 0-59 ; 078 x 0'58 ; 079 x O'dS. 



Hah. Bourke District, Tyndarie — (JIics. Doh}\, J. B.) 



15. SpIIENURA BRACIITPTERA, Lath. PI. 3, fig. 13. 



The nest is an oval dome-shaped structure, composed of grasses 

 and debris, it is placed at the foot of some bushy shrub and con- 

 cealed among the debris and grass which usually accumulates in 

 such places. The eggs are three in number, the ground colour 

 almost white, the whole surface thickly freckled with dots of 

 blackish-brown and reddish-brown, with a few of a pale lilac tint 

 here and there, some of the dots very minute others larger and 

 roundish in shape, in one specimen they form a thick crowded 

 patch on the thicker end, wdiere some are confluent ; the egg 

 before me is oval, rather swollen, and the shell very thin ; length 

 1*02 X 075, they breed during September to December. — {Miis. 

 DohrJ, (from Mr. JRalph Hargrace^s Collection). 



16. Mexura alberti, Goidd. PI. 5, figs. 1 and 2. 



I have lately seen a fine specimen of this rare Qgg in the 

 Macleay Museum, and another in the Australian Museum 

 Collection, are all I have met with during the last twenty years ; 

 the egg is oval, almost equal at both ends, the ground colour is of 

 a rich purple-brown, the thicker end of the egg is blotched with 

 large irregular markings of purplish-brown, very dark and almost 

 forming a zone, the remainder of the surface is marked with 

 irregularly shaped spots of the same tint, a few of them inclining 

 to linear, others almost rounded ; length 2*23 x 17 in. 



The specimen in the Macleayan Museum is figured on PI. 5, 

 fig. 2, natural size. The ground colour was a purplish-stone 

 colour, but has faded to light slate colour, the markings are 



