64 PTILOSORHYNCHID^. 



on the gth November, igoi, at Ourimbah. It was built in a drooping branch of a large 

 "Maiden's Blush," (Sloanea aiistralisj, growing on the bank of a creek, and was about twenty 

 feet from the ground. 



The eggs are usually two, sometimes three, in number for a sitting, and are oval, elongate- 

 oval, or rounded-oval in form, the shell being close-grained, and its surface smooth and 

 lustrous. In ground colour they vary from a yellowish-stone colour to a faint greyish or 

 dull white. Of a set of three, lent by Mr. Elvery, two are typical ovals, the other is nearly 

 an ellipse in form. All are of a pale yellowish-stone ground colour, with long irregular 

 lines, ill-shaped figures, loops, and scrolls of light-umber-brown, encircling the shell, and fairly 

 evenly distributed, with similar but less numerous underlying and clouded markings of dull 

 violet-grey; some of the lines are broad and blurred, others fine and very distinct. In one 

 specimen there is a patch of well defined purplish linear markings near the smaller end, and a 

 few finer purplish-black lines on the larger end. All have a few short wavy black hair-lines, 

 hardly visible to the naked eye: — Length (A) 1-5 x i-i inches; (B) i'49 x ri2 inches; (C) 1-53 x 

 fo6 inches. A set of two in the Australian Museum collection are o\al in form and darker 

 in ground colour, being of a pale cream-bufi", and more sparingly and unevenly marked. One 

 specimen has fine blurred zig-zag linear markings of different shades of sienna and umber- 

 brown, intermingled with a few faint underlying markings of dull bluish-grey; the other has 

 the zig-zag linear surface markings broader and darker, and interspersed with several large 

 smudges and patches of rich umber-brown, some of the latter looking as if they had been placed 

 on the shell with a finger dipped in colour, and a single black linear streak half encircling the 

 shell on the larger end: — Length (A) i-56 x rog inches; (B) i'49 x i-i inches. Another set of two, 

 lent by Mr. George Savidge, varies considerably from the two sets above described. They are 

 of a pale stone-grey ground colour, with short streaks, irregular-shaped blotches, spots, and dots 

 of different shades of umber-brown, evenly distributed over the surface of the shell, intermingled 

 with similar but almost obsolete underlying markings of dull bluish-grey. One specimen has 

 an almost straight linear streak near the centre of the shell, and another very fine ink-hued 

 hair-line on the larger end which resembles a crack in the shell. Length (A) i-^8 x i -08 inches; 

 (B) 1-52 X 1-07 inches. In the general character of the markings, this set is not unlike a variety 

 of the eggs of the Satin Bower-bird. Other specimens I have examined, taken in Queensland, 

 have the ground colour greyish-white, and the linear markings confined chiefly to the thicker half 

 of the shell; a rare variety has the ground colour pale greenish-grey like the egg of the Spotted 

 Bower-bird. In shape, size, colour, and character of markmgs, typical eggs of Sericulus incUnus 

 are almost indistinguishable from those of Chlamydodera macidaia, except in the ground colour. 

 The ground colour of typical eggs of the former is yellowish-stone colour, that of the latter pale 

 greenish-grey. 



Young males resemble the females, and assume the adult plumage chiefly by a change 

 of feather colour and not by moult. One now before me has the head, sides of the neck, 

 mantle, scapulars, and back black, rump and upper tail-coverts dark brown, and changing into 

 black; on the hind neck a large patch of bright yellow feathers with small blackish tips; wings 

 as in the adult bird, but slightly duller in colour, and the tips of the secondaries and outer 

 webs of the greater wing-coverts with pale yellowish-brown edges; tail feathers black, brownish 

 at the tips; sides of the head and neck, throat, and breast black; remainder of the under surface 

 and under tail coverts dull straw-white with blackish cross-bars to all the feathers. Wing 

 measurement as in the adult bird, 5-1 inches. 



Another specimen has the head, nape, hind-neck, and mantle as in the adult male, but 

 duller in colour and with blackish tips to some of the feathers, and those on the sinciput being 

 black instead of deep reddish-orange; mantle and upper back black; lower back and rump as 

 in the adult female ; upper tail-coverts brown, the lower ones with black centres ; two central 



