238 STLVIID.E. 



ochraceous tips, and the apical half of the inner web of the outermost feather is 7vhite. Total length 

 9 inches, wing .{v, tail So, bill 0-98, tarsus 1-12. 



AuuLT FEMALE — Similar in plumage to the adult male. 



Distribution. — Eastern Queensland, North-eastern New South Wales. 

 /T^HIS species, or smaller northern race of Gcocichla hinulaia. was described by Dr. Cabanis 

 _L in his " Museum Heineanum," - but the habitat is there erroneously recorded as Japan. 

 In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," the late Mr. H. Seebohm states it "appears 

 to be found throughout Eastern Australia as far south as :Moreton Bay." In Dr. Ramsay's 

 "List of Birds met with in North-eastern Queensland," I the species there referred to by him 

 under the name of Orcocincla Inmilata, is I think, referrable to Geodchla heinii. 



The preceding description is taken from a specimen procured near Port ?vlackay at the 

 mouth of the Pioneer River, Queensland. E.xamples obtained at Ballina and Lismore, New 

 Soutli Wales, are slightly larger, less distinctly washed with rufescent-ochraceous on the upper 

 parts, the ochraceous tips to the median and greater wing-coverts are much smaller and paler, and 

 the white tips to the inner web of the outermost tail feather are smaller, and in some specimens 

 are tinged with rufescent-brown. Wing 475 to 4-9 inches. Of six specimens since received, 

 collected by Mr. James Yardley further north at Dungay Creek, Tweed River, near the 

 Queensland border, tliree appear to belong to the smaller form, Gcocichla heinii, the others are 

 indistinguishable from typical specimens of G. linitilala obtained in the southern portion of 

 New South Wales. Mr. Yardley informed me that they were all shot in company with one 

 another, and that the difference in size and colour he believed was only a se.xual one. 



A nest of this species, taken near the Tweed River in October, 1891, is a round open 

 cup-shaped structure, formed externally of thin strips of bark, plant tendrils, and Casuarina 

 leaves, and is thickly coated with green moss, the inside being lined with wiry black rootlets. 

 It measures outwardly six inches in diameter by three inches and a half in depth, and the inner 

 cup three inches in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth. 



The eggs are usually two in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being close- 

 grained, and its surface smooth and lustreless. They are of a pale green or greenish-blue 

 ground colour, which is minutely and faintly freckled with pale chestnut-red, the markings 

 predominating on the thicker end, where a small cap is sometimes formed. A set of two in 

 Mr. George Savidge's collection, taken in the Richmond River District on the 12th September, 

 1901, measures: — Length (A) 1-15 xo-g inches; (B) rig x 0-9 inches. 



Family SYLVIID^. 



Oen-as .A.OISOOE^'H-A.IjTJS, Naumann. 



Acrocephalus australis. 



KEED WAKliLEE. 

 Acrocephalus australis, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III., pi. 37 (1848); Seebohm, Cat. Bds. Brit. 



Mus., Vol. v., p. 100 (1881). 

 Calamoherpe australis, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 402 (1865). 



Adult male — General colour above brown slightly tinged v-ith olive, passing into a dtdlfawn 

 colour on the rump and upper tail- coverts ; upper wingcoverts like the back; quills brown, externally 

 edged with pale olive-brown; a stripe extending from the nostril over the eye dull whitish; ear- 



' Mus. Hein., Theil i., p. 6 (1850). 

 t Proc. Zool. Soc, 1875, p. 591. 



