MALL'KUS. 



231 



Mr. George Savidge kindly forwarded an interesting series of tliese birds in the flesh to the 

 Australian Museum on the ist August, 1901, which were shot by him the same day at Copman- 

 hurst. One is a fine old adult male in full plumage. Another, an immature male, resembles the 

 adult female, e.xcept in having the bill dull black and about half the feathers on the back dull 

 orange-scarlet instead of fulvous-brown. Five are in the plumage of the adult female, and 

 moreover resemble that sex precisely in the colour of the bill, legs, and feet. The sex of one of 

 them, however, is indicated by a single new jet black tail feather measuring oS inches in length, 

 and of which only 0-3 inches has burst its sheath. Concealed under the brown feathers of the 

 back are six orange-scarlet feathers enclosed in sheaths, except at the tips, those on the lower 

 back being slightlv more advanced towards maturity. Dissection proved another to be a young 

 male, and the remainder adult females. 



With the above specimens, Mr. Savidge sent me the following note: — " Maliinis mdano- 

 cephalns is, as you know, plentifully dispersed about the Upper Clarence District, and frequents 

 chiefly patches of blady-grass, swampy country, and the borders of creeks. I cannot think 

 with Gould that the adult males assume their full red and black livery only during the 

 breeding season. Fully plumaged males are just as plentiful now as at any other season of 

 the year. Young males are evidently brown, but you will notice one of the specimens, or even 

 two, ha\e commenced to assume the distinguishing plumage of the male. These birds usually 

 quickly conceal themselves when any danger is about, and wounded ones are very difficult to 

 find, as they hide away in the least cover. The breeding season begins here in August, and 

 continues until the end of February." 



The nest is oval in form, with a rounded entrance near the top, and is constructed 

 outwardly of dried grasses, lined inside with fine grasses or plant down. Some nests have a 

 few thin strips of bark worked into the outer portion; others, as the one figured on Plate A. V., 

 a few thin dead leaves and skeletons of leaves. An average nest measures externally four 

 inches and a half in height by three inches and a quarter in diameter, and across the entrance 

 one inch and a quarter. It is usually built in long coarse grass, and frequently in blady-grass 

 in the north-eastern portion of New South Wales. 



The eggs are three or four in number for a sitting, and \ary considerably in the dis- 

 position of their markings. Typically they are oval in form, although elongate and rounded 

 ovals are not uncommon, the shell being close-grained and its surface smooth and slightly 

 lustrous. In a number of sets now before me, the ground colour in all is pure white, 

 and the markings vary from a few almost invisible dots of pinkish-red to well defined but 

 irregular shaped spots and blotches of reddish-brown, which predominates as usual on the 

 thicker end, where a zone or cap is sometimes formed. .\ set of three, taken at Ripple Creek, 

 Herbert River, Queensland, by Mr. J. A. I>oyd on the i6th September, 1894, measures as 

 follows: — Length (.\) o-6i X 0-45 inches; (B) 0-62 x 0-46 inches; (C) o-52 x 0-46 inches. A set 

 of four, taken by Mr. G. Savidge at Copmanhurst, in November, 1900, measures:— (.A.) 0-62 x 

 0-47 inches; (B) 0-64 x 0-47 inches; (C) o-6i x 0-47 inches; (D) 0-65 x 0-49 mches. 



Young males resemble the female in colour and size, and have the brown tail feathers 

 longer than when fully adult. In their approach to maturity the orange-scarlet feathers on the 

 back are, as a rule, the first indication of the distinguishing sexual colour. Still older birds 

 have some of the feathers on the head and centre of the breast black, the new and shorter tail 

 feathers are also black, and the remainder brown; bill brown. Wing 17 inches. Gradually 

 the fully adult plumage is assumed, until the last trace of immaturity is lost when the brown 

 feathers on the thighs are replaced by black ones. 



.\ugust and the six following months constitute the usual breeding season of this species 

 in north-eastern New South Wales, but I have received from the Dawson River District, 

 Queensland, two full sets taken respectively on the 12th and 17th March, 1893. 



