1144 DESCRIPTIONS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS' EGGS, 



dots of light wood-l>rown, and a few dots of lilac, the markings 

 being confined to the zone, with the exception of one or two large 

 dots on the remainder of the surface. Length 0*7 x 0*52 inch. 

 (Front Mr. Ralph Margrave's Coll.) 



PlEZORIIYNCIK'S ALBIVENTRIS, Gould. 



Monarclta albiventris, Gould, Supp. Bds. Aust. pi. 13. 



From the British Museum Catalogue of Birds, Vol. IV., 

 pp. 418-19, I gather that the true Piezorhynchus trivirgata of 

 Temminck is not found in Australia, and that the bird figured by 

 Gould under this name must therefore be a distinct specieSj which 

 Mr Sharpe names P. gouldii. Against this I have nothing to say, 

 but it may be as well to remark that the bird which we recognise 

 here as Gould's P. trivirgata, viz., Sharpe's P. gouldii, is not the 

 same as the white-bellied species P. albiventris of Mr. Gould, 

 nor is it found farther north, as far as I know, than the Burnett 

 and Burdekin Rivers, but it is found as far south as the Hunter ; 

 and I have eggs taken by Macgillivray on the Clarence River. 

 I also met with it on the Richmond River. I hold that Gould's 

 P. albiventris is a good species confined to the north, and quite 

 distinct from its southern representative in N.S.W., P. gouldii. 



Having previously described the nest and eggs of P. gouldii, 

 Sharpe, (Monarcha trivirgata, of Gould), and of Jlonarcha 

 melanopsis, Vieill. {M. carinata, V. and H., Gould's Bds. 

 Aust., pi. b'5), I need only mention that these descriptions will 

 be found in the Ibis; of the former, M. trivirgata of Gould, in Ibis, 

 Vol. IV., n. s. 1868, p. 271, and of the latter, M. carinata, in the 

 Ibis, 1865, Vol. l.n. s., p. 302. 



The nest of P. albiventris is similar in every respect to that of 

 Mniarcha melanopsis, Vieill., only slightly smaller, and the eggs of 

 the several species are scarcely to be distinguished from one another 

 except by their size. Those of P. albiventris, Gould, measure 

 08 in length x 0*56 inch. The ground-colour is white, the 

 whole surface being sprinked over with freckles and dots of bright 

 red, which becoming confluent near the thicker end, there form a 

 zone. 



