140 



GERYGONE. '^^'^ 



birds u'hich he sent me for identification. Tlirottgh Mr. G. A. Keartland I have also received 

 its nest and eggs, taken by Mr. C. K. Cowle, near Illamurta, Central Australia. 



Mr C W DeVis M. A., has kindly forwarded me two specimens of G^ri'^^o^f n(//mw« for 

 exammation from Queensland. One obtamed by Mr. K. Broadbent at ClnnchiUa on the 

 banks of the Condannne Kuer. in May, 1885, and referred to by him'= as Gerygone fusca has 

 the upper parts paler and strongly tmged with olive, and the outer webs of the qmlls are 

 distinctly washed with yellowish-ol.ve. Judging by the tail feathers, it is evidently in the 

 moult '\nother specimen, procured by Mr. Broadbent in October, 1885, at Charlev.Ue, on 

 the Warre-o River, about five hundred and twenty miles west of Brisbane, and recorded as 

 Gerygone mastevu,] is precisely similar to a specimen of G. adidvova, obtained by Mr. Masters 

 at Port Lincoln, South Australia, in December, 1865. 



It is evident that the present species is subject to individual variation, for none of our 

 specimens from anv part of Australia show any trace of the •' ochraceous-buff wash on the 

 sides of the bodv," as characterised by Dr. Sharpe in his description of Gerygone cuhc,vora.\ 



A nest of this species, taken by Mr. E. H. Lane on the 28th October, 1900, at Wambanga- 

 lanc. Station, resembles a small nest of G. albtgulans. It is pear-shaped in form, with an 

 entrance near the top, slightly sheltered with a small hood, and has the common tail-hke 

 appendacre, which is shorter than usual, at the bottom of the structure. Outwardly it is 

 formed of very fine strips of bark, dried grasses, spiders' cocoons, and small fragments of 

 newspaper, all matted up together, and coated with a lacework of spiders' webs; inside the 

 bottom portion of the nest only is lined with very fine dried grasses and a few feathers 

 Externally it measures six inches and a quarter in height over all by two inches and a half 

 in diameter, and across the entrance nine-tenths of an inch. It was attached to the thin leafy 

 twigs of a stringy-bark sapling, about fifteen feet from the ground, and was a mile and a halt 

 away from the nearest water. 



Ecrcrs three in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, 

 and almost lustreless. Of a set of three taken by Mr. Lane on the 4th November, ^ 899, two 

 of them are of a very pale fleshy-white ground colour, which is minutely and finely freckled 

 with dull pinkish-red, the markings predominating on the thicker end where a well defined zone 

 is formed; the other specimen is white, faintly tinged with yellowish-buff, with a zone of dull 

 red spots on the larger end, the remainder of the shell being devoid of markings. They 

 measure as follows :-Length (A) 0-63 x 0-48 inches; (B) 0-64 x 0-47 inches; (C) 0-64 x 0-47 mches. 

 In New South Wales, October and the three following months, apparently constitute the 

 breeding season of this species. 



Gerygone magnirostris. 



LAEGE-BILLED BUSH-WAKBLER. 

 Gerygone magnirostris, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 133; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. IL, pi. 100 



(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vok L, p. 270 (186.5); North, Ibis, 189.3, p. 373. 

 Pseudogerygone magnirostris, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IV., p. 222 (1879). 



Adult UALK-General colour above brown, slightly tinged ivith olive; upper wing-coverts like 

 the hack; quills brown, exlernally edged with olive-brorvn ; tail feathers brown, crossed by an 

 indistinct subterminal blackish-brown band, all hut the two central ones having a dull rvhitxsh spot 

 near the tip of the inner web; a spot in front of the eye dusky hrown, a smaller one near the 

 nostril, and the eyelid above and below, white; sides of the neck fulvous-brown; throat and all the 



* Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensld., Vol. ii., p. 121 (1886). 

 t Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensld., Vol. iii., p. 28 (1887). 

 I Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. iv., p. 220 (1879). 



