236 TURDID.E. 



for they are resorted and added to season after season. The materials forming the lower 

 portion of the original nests, owing to excreta, rains, and storms, become decomposed and 

 consist chiefly of mould and decayed vegetable matter. This is more apparent when attempting 

 to remove one of these long-resorted to structures from a thick forked branch. An average nest 

 of the year measures externally seven inches and a half in diameter by four inches in depth; the 

 inner cup three inches and a half in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth; rim two 

 inches. The position of the nest varies with the localities in which it is found. The favourite 

 site near the coast is in a fork near the top of a tea-tree; and on the mountain ranges, wedged 

 between the thick forked trunk of a smooth barked gum-tree, or on a moss-covered horizontal 

 branch of any tree growing in a secluded gully. At Oakleigh, near Melbourne, I have also 

 found it in the thick fork of a gum tree and close to a tea-tree bordered creek. When built in 

 the latter position two sides of the nest alone are visible, that portion of it placed between the 

 fork consisting only of a lining and a narrow rim. Generally the nest is built from ten to 

 fifteen feet from the ground, not infre(]uently within hand's reach, and occasionally as high as 

 twenty feet. 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, varying from oval to elongate-oval 

 in form, the latter being the more common type; the shell is close grained, smooth, and 

 glossy. In ground colour they vary from a dull bluish-green, or greenish-grey, to a pale 

 sand-stone colour, which in typical specimens is thickly and minutely freckled or mottled 

 over the entire surface of the shell with dififerent shades of dull reddish, pinkish, or chestnut- 

 brown. In some specimens the markings predominate or are entirely confined to the larger 

 end; in others they are so thickly disposed that the ground colour is almost obscured, giving 

 the egg a reddish-brown hue. Of rare varieties are those of a light clay and stone-grey ground 

 colour, which is irregularly and heavily blotched and spotted on the larger end with diflferent 

 shades of reddish or dull purplish-brown. A set of two, taken at Cheltenham, Victoria, 

 measures:— Length (A) 1-41 x 0-92 inches; (B) 1-4 x o-gi inches. Another set, taken at 

 Bayswater by Mr. J. Gabriel on the 29th September, 1895, measures:— (A) 1-37 x 0-93 inches; 

 (B) 1-35 X 0-93 inches. A set taken at Circular Head, Tasmania, in 1887, measures: — (A) 1-37 

 X 0-97 inches; (B) 1-38 x 0-95 inches. A small egg, taken in the same locality on the 4th 

 October, 1887, measures 1-29 x 0-9 inches. 



Relative to the breeding of this species in Tasmania, the following information is extracted 

 from Dr. Holden's MS. notes, made while resident at Circular Head, on the north-western 

 coast:— "On the 19th October, 1886, I found a nest of the Mountain Thrush, containing two 

 young ones just hatched. It was a large structure composed outwardly and almost entirely of 

 green moss with a little dry grass and bark, the inside being neatly lined with fine dry grass. 

 The nest, on which the bird was sitting, was about ten feet up a tree-trunk, supported by the 

 broken remains of a dead branch. On the 9th November following I found another nest 

 containing two young just hatched. The mother sat very close and almost allowed me to 

 touch her before she would move. The nest was formed of tea-tree debris and dirt, and lined 

 with dry grass. It had no moss about it, and was built in the fork of a tea-tree growing in a 

 swamp, the height of the structure being about seven or eight feet from the water. Not far ofif 

 I found a nest in the topmost twigs of a small tea-tree. It had been half overturned, perhaps by 

 the wind, but contained an addled egg; another broken egg was lying on the ground beneath 

 the nest. On the 14th November I found a nest well up on an old stump, containing one chick 

 just hatched. Another, with a broken egg in it, was built in an old opossum's nest high up in 

 a tea-tree. Two days later I found a nest containing two much incubated eggs, built in an old 

 opossum's nest, in the top of a sapling; also a nest in the fork of a tea-tree, with an addled egg 

 and half shell of another. The Mountain Thrush is usually seen on the ground, and allows a 

 close approach if one remains pretty quiet. I have never heard them utter any note." 



