COLLYKIOCINCLA. ^'^ 



Adult female ^Distinyuishedfrom the mak by the blackuh shaft lines and darker grey feathers 

 of the under surface. 



Z)u«ri6.«io«.-North-western and Western Australia, South Australia, Central Australia. 



AT-VHl- r.ufl-hellied Shrike-Thrush is the representative of Collyviocimla havmonica in the 

 If western portion of the continent. There are specimens in the Australian Museum 

 collection, obtained by Mr. George Masters at Port Lincoln, South Australia, in September, 

 1865 and at King George's Sound, \\-estern Australia, in February and April of the following 

 yea,.' In August, 1901, Mr. Edwin Ashby met with this species at Callion, about eighty-five 

 miles north of Coolgardie. and three hundred and sixty miles from the coast. 



Durin.^ the journey of the Horn Scientific Expedition in Central Australia, these birds 

 were frequently met with, and regarding them Mr. G. A. Keartland writes to me as follows:- 

 "The Buff-belhed Shrike-Thrush is found near most of the permanent water-holes and wells in 

 Central Australia, and, as you will see by the collection sent you, we obtained specimens first 

 at Reedv Hole, and later on at the Levi Range. In many respects it bears a close resemblance 

 to Its near allv C. hannouua. and especially in its clear and musical notes. It chiefly frequents 

 shady gullies and the dense undergrowth of the forest, hopping nimbly over the ground or along 

 the stout limbs of eucalypts in search of insects, on^which it feeds. All the nests tound were 

 built in hollow stumps or between forked branches." 



From Point Cloates, North-western Australia. Mr. Tom Carter writes me, as follows :- 

 ^^Collynocincla mfivmins is common here in the deep gorges of the ranges. On the 27th July, 

 1899, I shot recently fledged young, and saw an adult bird hopping about with a tat lizard in 

 its bill, and singing lustily while so engaged." 



Mr C Ernest Cowle, of Illamurta, Central Australia, found a nest of this species on the 

 17th November, 1899, containing three heavily incubated eggs. The nest, which I have now 

 before me, is an open cup-shaped structure, formed chiefly of strips of dried bark, intermixed 

 with a few wiry rootlets and grasses, and was built in the fork of a tree, a few eet from he 

 .round. It measures externally five inches in diameter by three and a half inches in depth; 

 ^he inner cup measuring three inches and a half in diameter by two inches and three^iuar ers 

 in depth Eggs two or three in number for a sitting, varying from elongate to rounded oval m 

 form; white; some being finely spotted, others boldly blotched, particularly at the larger end, 

 with different shades of olive or reddish-brown, and underlying markings ot dull bluish-grey 

 Lenc^th :-(A) r2 . 0-85 inches; (B) r2i x 0-85 inches. A set of two, taken at Illamurta, Central 

 Australia, measures:-(C) 1-14 x 0-82 inches; (D) i-i2 x 0-83 inches. Two eggs, taken by Mr^ 

 C E. Cowle, in .Vpril, 1900. at Illamurta, are very much smaller than typical examples, and 

 vary much in size. They are oval m form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and sight y 

 glossy The ground colour is pearly-white, which is heavily blotched and spotted umtormly 

 over the shell with olive-brown and pale inky-grey, some of the latter markings appearing 

 as if beneath the surface of the shell. Length:-(A) 1-05 x o-8 inches; (B) i x 073 mches. 



Young birds have a distinct rufous eyebrow; sides of the head, neck and all the under 

 surface fa^n colour; the feathers on the throat and fore-neck broadly streaked with blackish^ 

 grey; the primaries and their coverts, secondaries, and greater wing-coverts brown, washed 

 with rufous; bill blackish-brown; base of the lower mandible fleshy-brown. 



Mr. Cowle informs me this species usually breeds in March or April; or in September and 

 the two following months, if there is a heavy rainfall. The above described nest, however, was 

 ten during a prolonged drought. In Western Australia, Gould records ^h- U b.eeds m th 

 latter part o^ September and the beginning of October, and that on two occasions Gilbert had 

 found the eggs of this bird in old nests of Pomatorhinus snpcvcihosus. 



