MAI-URUS. 209 



Insects and their larvse form the chief portion of the food of this species, but in winter I 

 have seen them in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney, pecking at the fallen berries of the common 

 introduced Olive (Olai ctiropea). Much of their food is obtained upon grass lands, over which 

 they (juickly progress in a series of hops, and with the tail carried over the back. These birds 

 may be easily attracted close to one by imitating their note or producing a hissing sound with 

 the teeth. 



The nest is a dome shaped structure, with the upper portion slightly overhanging a 

 narrow entrance in the side; it is formed externally of fine strips of bark-fibre, intermingled 

 with dried grasses and matted together with a slight addition of cobweb, the inside being 

 lined with finer dried grasses, and at the bottom a thick layer of feathers, hair, fur, wool, 

 or other soft material. An average nest measures five inches in length by three inches in 

 breadth, and across the entrance one inch. Usually it is built near the ground, stunted 

 Melaleuca or Hakca shrubs being preferred. About gardens, thickly-leaved shrubs, prickly 

 hedges, briar, and blackberry bushes, more especially with grass growing through them, are 

 fa\'ourite nesting sites. 



The eggs are three or four, rarely fi\e, in number for a sitting, and are oval or elongate- 

 oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustreless. They vary from a 

 fleshy-white to a light reddish-white ground colour, which is minutely dotted, spotted, or 

 blotched with pale red or different shades of reddish-brown. Some specimens have the 

 markings of a uniform size and evenly distributed over the surface of the shell; others have 

 irregular shaped blotches sparingly intermingled with very minute dots, but in most of them 

 the markings predominate on the larger end, where not infrequently a zone or cap is formed. 

 A set of four, taken at Roseville, near Sydney, on the 3rd October, i8g8, measures as follows: — ■ 

 Length (A) 0-67 x 0-5 inches; (B) o-66 x 0-5 inches; (C) o-6S x 0-49 inches; (D) 0-67 x 0-48 

 inches. A set of three, taken at Chatswood on the igth December, 1898, measures: — Length 

 (A) 0-7 X o'4S inches; (B) 07 x 0-47 inches; (C) o-6g x 0-48 inches. Each of these sets also 

 contained an egg of the Rufous-tailed Bronze Cuckoo (Lainprococcyx basalis). 



This species exhibits the same stages of plumage as does Malunis cyamus, in its progress 

 from youth to maturity. Young males resemble the adult females, but have the chestnut-brown 

 orbital ring not so well defined; in slightly older birds it is entirely lost. The tail feathers are 

 dull blue and the bill is nearly black in some specimens. On the 26th January, at Middle 

 Head, I saw an adult full plumaged male and female, accompanied by their young brood; two 

 of the latter resembling the adult female, another young male being distinguished by a black 

 bill and lores, and a dull blue tail. On the 13th May, at Roseville, I saw another similar pair 

 of adult birds, accompanied by their young in precisely the same stage of plumage. In their 

 progress towards maturity young males are darker in plumage than the female; a triangular- 

 shaped patch in front of the eye and bill is black, the tail-feathers dark blue, some of the 

 feathers of the head and mantle tipped with metallic blue, and the upper wing-coverts washed 

 with greenish-blue. Not quite adult males may be distinguished by their smaller mantle and 

 the paler colour of the metallic blue feathers of the crown of the head, ear-coverts, and mantle 

 which have a decided silvery tinge. 



Nidification begins in New South Wales at the latter end of July, and the breeding season 

 continues until the end of P'ebruary. : The task of incubation, in which the male shares, lasts 

 about fourteen days. ' They are persistent breeders, and I know of an instance where a pair 

 reared their brood at Chatswood after the female had been robbed of her eggs on four 

 consecutive occasions. 



The egg of the Rufous-tailed Bronze Cuckoo (Lamprococcyx basalis), is frequently laid in 

 the nest of this species, and sometimes that of the common Bronze Cuckoo (L. plagosus). As I 

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