14 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



spotted and dotted with irregulai' shaped markings of different 

 shades of umber and slaty-brown, underlying blotches of slaty- 

 grey appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Length 

 1"2 X 0"82 inch. In the colour and disposition of its markings, 

 it resembles some varieties of the eggs of Sittella clirysoj)tera, and 

 in shape and size that of the egg of Graucalus hyi^erleucus, but 

 is entirely free from the asparagus-green ground colour which 

 predominates in the eggs of the latter genus. This is the only 

 occasion I have known of the nest and egg of this species having 

 been taken. 



The Northern and Eastern portions of the Australian Continent 

 constitutes the habitat of this species. 



Chibia bracteata, Gould. Spangled Drongo-Shrike. 



Gould, Handhh. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 132, p. 235. 



This migratory species is rather freely dispersed over the greater 

 portions of Northern and Eastern Australia, it arrives at Cape 

 York about the middle of April, and the Herbert River in May. 

 Mr. C. C. L. Talbot found it breeding on Collaroy Station, near 

 Broad Sound, Queensland, on the 10th of October, 1882. The 

 nests in every instance were open and slightly cup-shaped 

 structures, composed entirely of long stems of a climbing plant 

 and fibrous roots, and were attached to the fine leafy twigs at 

 the extremities of the branches of a dwarf white gum, at an 

 altitude of twenty feet from the ground. The nests were placed 

 in trees about fifty yards apart, and in the twelve nests examined 

 each of them contained three eggs for a sitting ; in some the eggs 

 were perfectly fresh, in others partly incubated, but none were 

 found containing young ones. The eggs are oval in form, 

 somewhat pointed at one end, and are of a very pale purplish- 

 grey ground colour, with numerous scratches and irregular shaped 

 markings of light reddish-purple, scattered over the entire surface 

 of the shell, many of which are nearly obsolete. All the markings 

 have a faded and washed out appearance, and the shell is dull 

 and lustreless. A set measures, length (A) 1-2 x 0-83 inch ; 

 (B) M8 X 0-83 inch ; (0) 1-23 x 0-85 inch. 



Batiiilda ruficauda, Gould. Red-tailed Finch. 



Goidd, Ilandbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 254, p. 412. 



This pretty little Finch, although by no means common, has a 

 most extensive range of habitat, being found throughout Northern, 

 Noitli-eastern and North-western Australia, it is also very 

 sparingly dispersed over the Northern and Interior portions of 

 New South Wales, but in the latter districts it is considered a 

 rare species, being very seldom obtained ; a small flock was seen 

 near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains last winter, one of which, an 



