COLLVRIOCINCLA. 95 



cries. 1 took it for the hammering of a tree, hke the noise made by a Woodpecker, but after 

 repeated careful and close inspection with a field-glass, I discovered he made the noise with his 

 bill. He is known by the local names of -Whistling Dick," and 'Duke Willie," on account of 

 his peculiar note. Sitting one day by the Russell Falls River, near Hobart, in a gum-tree 

 forest, my companion and I were engaged m boiling the mid-day billy, when one of these 

 birds flew on to a branch near by and began to call. My bush friend threw a piece of bread 

 towards him, when down came the bird, searched for and found the bread, and carried it off 

 high up into the trees. My friend seemed to think it cjuite an ordinary performance, and told 

 me that this species was often very faTuiliar in these solitudes. On the 14th November, 1886, 

 at Circular Head, 1 found a nest of C. redimstris, built in the fork of a tea-tree about eight 

 feet from the ground. It was a deep cup-shaped structure, composed chiefly of strips of bark, 

 and thinly lined with dried grass and a little horse-hair. The female was sitting on three fresh 

 eggs. She would not leave the spot, even when the nest was destroyed. I found another in 

 the top of a tea-tree, built in an old opossum's nest, containing a young bird, which fluttered to 

 the ground and escaped. During October, 1887, I found three more nests, built in tea-trees, 

 at heights varying from seven to fifteen feet from the ground, each nest containing two eggs. 

 On the 25th September, 1890, I found a nest built in a hush barely four feet from the ground, 

 with three fresh eggs. Also another, on the 23rd November following, constructed in the top 

 of a dead tree in scrub, containing three hard set eggs. No bird sits closer to its eggs than the 

 female of this species. The eggs, which vary very much in shape, size, and markings, are 

 more frequentlv three than two in number for a sitting." 



In several sets of these eggs now before me, rounded oval is the predominate form, others 

 are somewhat sharplv pointed at each end; elongate-oval, the commonest type of C. haniwuica, 

 is poorly represented, while one set is almost globular. In ground colour they vary from 

 pearly-white to dull brownish-white, which is freckled, spotted, or blotched with olive-brown, 

 blackish-brown, or chestnut-brown, and underlying markings varying from faint to dark slaty- 

 grey. One type, in shape, colour, and disposition of markings, closely resembles the eggs of the 

 Olivaceous Thickhead. The markings are uniformly distributed in some specimens, in others 

 they predominate on the larger end, where they form a cap or zone. In one set the markings 

 are confined entirely to the thicker end, and consist of large olive-brown blotches intermingled 

 with small slaty-grey underlying spots, which far exceed in number and extent the surface 

 blotches. A set of two, taken by Dr. L. Holden, at Circular Head, Tasmania, on the 5th 

 October, 1891, measures: — Length (A) i-obxo-Sj inches; (B) i-o8 x x 0^87 inches. .\ set of 

 three, taken at Table Cape, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, by Mr. E. D. Atkinson, in 

 November, 1889, measures: — Length (A) 1-23 x o-86 inches; (B) 1-25 x 0-9 inches; (C) 1-2 x 0-85 

 inches. 



Young males have the feathers of the under surface more broadly streaked than the adult 

 female, and have the sides of the head and the upper wing-coverts washed with rufous. 



From the nests found by Dr. Holden, September and the three following months appear 

 to constitute the usual breeding season of this species. 



Collyriocincla brunnea. 



BJ;OWX SHKIKE-THEUSH. 



CoUuricinc/a brunnea, Gould, Proc. Zool. .Soc, 1840, p. 164; id., Bds. Austr., fob. Vol. II., pi. 76 



(1848); id., llandbk, Bds. Austr., Vol. L, p. 223 (1865). 



Adult male— G'«?(e?-«^ colour above pale brown; primaries, secondaries, and upper wing-coverts 



brown, externally edged with ashy-greij : tail feather !i brown, narrotvly edged rvith ashy-grey ; lores 



and the anterior portion of tlie cheeks dull toldle ; ear-coverts pale brown : chin and throat dull white. 



