286 TIMELIID^. 



houses. I have seen a great number of the nests of this species, having found as many 

 as three in an afternoon within a quarter of a mile of my house at Roseville, but I never 

 saw one in the position erroneously figured and described by Gould. I All were more or 

 less concealed, chiefly under a loose piece of rough bark hanging from the trunk of a tree. 

 Others were built among loose bark in the upright fork of a tree, a hole in the stem, or 

 in the angle formed by the bark being stripped from the upper portion and still attached, 

 but fallen against the trunk. I have also found them inside a small rotten stump, the entrance 

 alone being visible in a narrow cleft, through which the bird had to pass to gain access to 

 it; and I saw one, containing three eggs, that was taken from a mortice-hole in a post. As 

 a rule, the nests are built about five or six feet from the ground, some as low as two feet, 

 others at an altitude of thirty feet; but I saw a pair of birds carrying food to young ones 

 in a hollow spout formed in the end of a broken off lateral limb of a dead gum-tree at a 

 height of fully si.xty feet. Near Dalveen, on the highlands of the Darling Downs, Southern 

 Queensland, Dr. A. M. Morgan and his brother, Mr. E. R. Morgan, found several nests of 

 this species sheltered beneath the umbrella-like covering formed on the under-side of the 

 compact mass of leaves of Grass-trees ( Xanthorrhaa Iiastilis ). One found early in September, 

 1903, w^as built among the underneath straggling dead leaves, at a height of three feet six inches 

 from the ground, and contained four heavily incubated eggs. 



The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, only on one occasion have I found five, 

 oval or swollen oval in form, some specimens tapering sharply towards either end. They are 

 of a pure white or fleshy-white ground colour, over which is sprinkled freckles and small 

 irregular-shaped spots, varying from light red to rich brownish-red, the markings as a rule 

 being confined chiefly to the larger end, where in some instances they are confluent and form 

 a well defined cap or zone. Some specimens are very sparingly marked, and one set I saw 

 that was taken from a nest built in the mortice-hole of a post was pure white. A set of five, 

 taken at Roseville on the i6th September, igoo, measures as follows: — Length (A) o-6i x 0-47 

 inches; (B) 0-63 x 0-48 inches; (C) 0-65 x 0-47 inches; (D) 0-62 x 0-47 inches; (E) 0-62 x 0-58 

 inches. A set of four, taken in the same district on the 4th October, 1901, measures: — (A) 

 0-65 x 0-5 inches; (B) 0-62 x 0-48 inches; (C) 0-62 x 0-5 inches; (D) 0-63 x 0-48 inches. 



Nidification in New South Wales usually begins at the latter end of .\ugust, and the nest 

 is constructed in ten to twelve days. The eggs are deposited daily, and incubation lasts about 

 twelve days; the young ones remaining in the nest from eighteen to twenty-one days._ Although 

 these birds may be successful in rearing their young, I have never known of an instance of 

 their resorting to the same site in the following season, and only on one occasion have I found 

 eggs in a nest that young birds had been previously reared in. Unlike Gcobasileus chrysorrhous 

 they do not betray their nesting-place, and seldom venture near it if an intruder is in the 

 vicinity. The last nest I found of this species was on the i6th December, 1903. It was built 

 in the fork of a rough-barked tea-tree, six feet from the ground, close to a well frequented path 

 leading to Middle Harbour, and contained a single fresh egg. The breeding season usually 

 terminates about the end of December. 



The nest figured, which was in the most exposed situation I have found one, was built in 

 a hollow in the trunk of a large Rough-barked Apple-tree (Angophora inicrmedia), at Roseville, at 

 a height of five feet from the ground. I found it on the ist September, 1901, when it contained 

 two newly hatched young that had just emerged from the shell. I photographed it on the 21st 

 September, the female feeding the young ones, which were now fully feathered, with small 

 yellow and black butterflies while I was engaged in focussing. When comparing one that I 

 had taken out of the nest, with the adult, which was in a small shrub not eighteen inches away, 



Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. iii., pi. 62 (1848). 



