CIlLAMVnODERA. 



57 



face, near it one like a shield, another a Maltese cross, and one on the larger end the figure 8. 

 The other specimen is of a yellowish-stone ground colour, and the linear markings are less 

 conspicuous, being intermingled with small irregularly-shaped confluent blotches of light umber- 

 brown and a few clouded subsurface markings of faint purplish-grey; on the larger end are 

 two blackish-brown linear markings terminating in a spot at one end of each line. The shell 

 is close-grained, and the surface of the latter specimen has a fine gloss on it ; the otiier egg, 

 although smooth, is ahnost devoid of lustre. The markings on an egg in Mr. G. A. Keartland's 

 collection consist principally of irregularly-shaped blotches and thick, short, wa\y streaks of 

 ochraceous and purplish-brown on a fine net-work of zig-zag hair-like lines. In all of these 

 specimens the umber-brown markings predominate, and most of the purplish-grey lines, or 

 clouded smears, appear as if beneath the surface of the shell. They vary in length from 1-55 

 to 1-67 inches, and in width from i-i to i-i6 inches. Another egg, from a set of two in Mr. j. 

 Gabriel's collection, is more elongate in form and has the ground colour almost obscured by 

 a net-work of \-ery fine dark brown hair lines, especially on the centre and thinner half of the 

 shell, the narrow lines being wound latitudinally round and around the egg, revealing 

 only in one or two places a trace of similar underlying markings of purplish-grey : — 



Length 171 

 X i-i inches. 

 A glossy and 

 very evenly 

 marked egg 

 in Mr. Keart- 

 land's collec- 

 tion, taken by 

 Mr. William 

 Munt on the 

 27th January, 

 I goo, at Mar- 

 ton, aboutfive 

 miles from 

 C o o k t o w n , 

 measures 1-75 

 X i'i2 inches. 

 This egg, 

 which was 

 partially in- 

 cubated, was taken from a nest in the top of a Bloodwood (Eucalyptus corymbosa) sapling, at a 

 height of twelve feet from the ground. 



Mr. E. A. C. Olive has kindly presented birds and eggs of this species to the Trustees 

 of the Australian Museum, and from his letter accompanying the specimens I have extracted 

 the following information: — "The males are far more shy than tiie females and young 

 males. I have shot fully two dozen near Cooktown during January and February without 

 any trace of the pink nape spot. The nest is a loosely built structure formed of large 

 twigs, some of them being nearly as thick as a lead-pencil, the inside being lined with fibres 

 and roots. One can see through the nest from the ground and detect whether it contains eggs 

 or not. They select a tea-tree for preference, and generally an overhanging branch with thick 

 foliage, but I have found them in various other trees at a height of about twelve feet from the 

 ground. Both birds are very shy during the breeding season, and always leave the nest before 

 one approaches it. I usually obtain their eggs from the first week in October up to the end of 

 December, but in 1895 "^ve had rain in August and they nested then. Two eggs are sometimes 



NEST AND EGGS OP EASTERN BOWER UIRD. 



