244 SYLVIID*. 



A nest containing three fresh eggs, found by Mr. George Masters at King George's Sound, 

 Western Australia, on the 5th November, 1868, is a dome-shaped structure with a small 

 entrance near the top, formed externally of dried grasses, with which is intermingled egg bags 

 of spiders and their green silky coverings, the inside being lined entirely with fine dried grasses. 

 It measures externally five inches and a half in height by three inches in diameter, and across 

 the entrance one inch. Mr. Masters informs me it was built in a rigid-leaved shrub, about 

 eighteen inches from the ground. 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes four in number for a sitting, oval or thick ovals in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and almost lustreless. They are of a delicate 

 white ground colour, which is more or less sprinkled with freckles, irregular shaped spots, 

 and a few small blotches, varying in tint on different specimens from a pale chestnut-red to 

 bright red, the markings as a rule being more thickly disposed on the larger end.' A set of 

 three, taken by Dr. Ramsay at Long Island at the mouth of the Hunter River, on the 25th 

 September, 1861, measures as follows: — Length (.■\) o-6xo-48 inches; (B) o-6i xo-48 inches; 

 (C) 0-62 X 0-47 inches. Two eggs in the collection of Mr. Charles French, junr., taken by Mr. 

 G. E. Shepherd at Western Port, Victoria, measure:— (A) 0-67 x 0-47 inches; (B) 0-67 x 0-48 

 inches. The eggs of the Emu Wren more closely resemble those of the Superb Warbler than 

 any other species. 



Young males are duller in colour than the adults, and destitute of the pale rufous forehead 

 and crown; the feathers of the upper parts are tinged with ochraceous-brown and are less 

 distinctly streaked with black; tail feathers shorter but the webs longer and closer together 

 than in the adult; feathers above the eye pale ochraceous-brown; chin and throat very light 

 blue. The wing measurement of some specimens often equals and sometimes exceeds that of 

 adult examples. Length of wing 17 inches; tail 2 inches. 



O-en-O-S S:E=I3:E:bTlUiS.^^, Lichtenstein. 



Sphenura brachyptera. 



BKISTLE bIKD. 

 Turdus brachypterus, Lath., Ind. Orn., Suppl., p. xliii., (1801). 

 Dasyorniis auslralv), Gould, Bds. Austr., £ol.. Vol. III., pi. 32 (1848). 



Sphenura brachyptera, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I, p. 342 (1865); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. 

 Brit. Mas., Vol. VII., p. 104 (1883). 



Adult hale — General colour above brown, and having a slight ruf ascent tinge which is more 

 jironounced on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; upper wing-coverts like the back, the inner series 

 of the greater coverts slightly more rufescent; outer tvebs of the quills rufoui-brown, their inner 

 webs brown; tail featliers rufescent-brown ; lores and an indistinct line above the eye whitish; throat 

 and centre of the breast dull white; remainder of the under surface brown, darker on the sides of the 

 body; lenylliened lower flank feathers, thighs, awl under lailcoverts rufescejit-broton ; bill brown, t/te 

 under mandible pale brown; legs and feet brown; iris brown. Total length in the flesh 88 inches, 

 toing 3-1, tail 4'3, bill OS, tarsus I'l. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly smaller. 



Distribution. — -New South Wales. 

 a\ HAVE never seen a specimen of this bird from any part of Australia, except the coastal 

 jL districts of New South Wales, its range extending from the Richmond River in the north 

 to as far south as the Clyde River in the Illawarra District. Near Sydney it frequents the 

 scrubby undergrowth between Manly and Newport, also between Hondi and La Perouse, but 

 it is now extremely rare. Mr. Masters informs me that many years ago, while shooting at 



