DICliUKUS. 



87 



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in diameter bv two inches in depth. It was built at a heij^ht of forty feet from the ground, 

 and the eggs — four in number — were visible through the bottom of the nest. The figure is 

 reproduced from a photograph taken, and kindly lent by Mr. Sa\idge. 



The eggs are from three to fi\'e in number for a sitting, and vary considerably in shape, 

 colour, and disposition of tlieir markings. In shape they are mostly oval or elongate-oval, some 

 specimens tapering sharply to one or both ends, the shell being close-grained and its surface 

 dull and lustreless. The ground colour varies from faint reddish-white to pale purplish-grey. 

 .\ common type has a pale purplish -grey ground colour, v.ith numerous irregular shaped 

 blotches, smears, scratches, and freckles of different shades of purplish-red scattered over tlie 

 shell, and intermingled with faint similar underlying markings of dull \iolet-grey. In some 

 specimens these markings are clear and well defined; in others they are very faint and hardly 

 distinguishable from the ground colour. Another type has a very pale creamy-buff ground 

 colour, o\er which is evenly distributed numerous small indistinct freckles and fleecy markings 

 of light red intermingled with underlying spots and freckles of dull violet-grey; in some 



specimens the markings 

 become confluent on 

 tlie larger end, where an 

 indistinct zone is formed. 

 I IV- ~,j«5^ >v>-.^ -i.-i.Ai~"^-^^*tr',«' Others ha\e large under- 



taken in the Bloomfield 

 River District, North- 

 eastern Queensland, on 

 the20thDecember,i8g4, 

 measures: — Length (A) 

 i'3 X o'Sinches; (B) i'3i 

 X o-8i inches; (C) i'3 x 

 0-8 1 inches. Another set 

 of three, taken on the 

 nth December, 1895, in 

 the same district, measures: — (A) i-aaxo-Sy inches; (B) i-23xo-87 inches; (C) i-igxo-Sj 

 inches. .\ set of three, taken at Broad Sound, on the loth October, 1882, measures: — (A) i-2 x 

 0-83 inches; (B) i-i8xo-83 inches; (C) 1-23 x 0-85 inches. A set of eggs taken by Mr. G. 

 Savidge on the i7tli November, 1901, are of a faint purplish-white ground colour, which is 

 sprinkled over with numerous small irregular shaped spots, streaks, dashes, and a few large 

 blotches of light red and purplish-red, intermingled with similar underlying markings and 

 clouded patches of pale purplish-red, predominating as usual on the thicker end of the shell. 

 Length:— (A) i-i6 x o-86 inches; (B) 1-19 x 0-84 inches ; (C) ri6 x o-86 inches; (D) i-i8xo-86 

 inches. 



Mr. C. C. L. Talbot found this species breeding on Collaroy Station, near Broad Sound, 

 Queensland, on the loth October, 1882. The nests were attached to the fine leafy twigs at the 

 e.xtremities of the branches of dwarf white gums at an altitude of twenty feet from the ground. 

 They were placed in trees about fifty yards apart, and in twelve nests e.xamined each contained 

 three eggs for a sitting. In some the eggs were fresh, in others partially incubated. On the 

 17th January, 1896, Mr. J. A. Boyd found a nest on the Herbert River, containing three nearly 

 fledged young. Still further north, Mr. Frank Hislop writes to me: — "The Drongo-shrike is 



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NEST AND EGGS OF DRON(;0 SHRIKE. 



