ACANTHORNIS. 291 



wing-coverts are much smaller, and are entirely lost in the median series, but this may be due 

 to age and not a sexual character. Others, forwarded in the flesh by Mr. Atkinson in June, 

 1902, and March, 1904, present no difference from those described on the preceding page. The 

 stomachs of these birds I examined contained the remains of insects, principally of small black 

 beetles. 



Mr. R. N. Atkinson informs me that tiiis species frequents the undergrowth at Mount 

 Bischoff, and that it has much the same note as Acanthiza diemenensis, but louder; also that it 

 utters a faint twitter while creeping about the low herbage. On the 30th September, 1899, he 

 found a nest near Waratah, containing three fresh eggs. The nest, which I have now before 

 me, is a large domed structure, with an entrance in the side. It is loosely formed externally of 

 dried sheaths of grasses, weeds, and ferns, intermingled with a few pieces of bright green 

 mosses; the inner wall of the nest is thick and compactly constructed of fern rootlets, thin 

 strips of bark, and very fine grasses, and it is thickly lined with feathers of the Y'ellow- 

 bellied Parrakeet, thistle-down, and the downy covering of freshly budded fern fronds. It 

 measures six inches and three-quarters in height by four inches and three-quarters in width, 

 and across the entrance one inch and a quarter. "It was built in a clump of grass and rushes 

 in a swamp, close to some 'firevveeds.'" 



The et;gs from the above nest, which Mr. Atkinson has kindly lent for description, are 

 oval in form and nearly equal in size at each end, the shell being close-grained, smooth, 

 and lustreless. They are of a dull white ground colour, which is spotted and blotched with 

 different shades varying from pale to rich purple, tiie markings — many of them penumbral — 

 being confined almost entirely to the larger end. On one specimen the blotches are confluent 

 and form a small but well defined zone; on another the markings consist chiefly of a band 

 of isolated spots intermingled with one or two clusters of larger and darker blotches over- 

 lying paler ones: the remaining specimen has a few very small but distinct spots on one side 

 of the larger end, and three or four larger confluent spots of different shades on the other, 

 forming a conspicuous patch: — Length (A) 072 x 0-54 inches; (B) 072x0-56 inches; (C) 

 075 X 0-57 inches. An egg from a set of three, taken by Mr. G. H. Hinsby on the 29th 

 October, 1886, at Kangaroo \'alley, about five miles from Hobart, is a thick oval in form 

 and tapers gradually towards each end, which are nearly equal in size; it is white with fine 

 freckles of dull red, particularly towards one end, where they form an irregular-shaped zone: — 

 Length 071x0-56 inches. Another egg, taken by Mr. Hinsby, is oval in form, white with 

 light red and reddish-brown markings, which are mostly confined towards the thicker end 

 of the shell: — Length 0-75 x 0-54 inches. Although usually more swollen in form, and nearly 

 equal in size at each end, the egg of this species is like that of the larger species of typical 

 Acanthiza. 



Aphelocephala leucopsis. 



WHITE-FACED SQUEAKEE. 

 Xerophila leiicopsis, Gould, Proo. Zool. Soc, 184^0, p. 175; id., Bds. Austr., fol, Vol. III., pi. 67 

 (1848); id., Handl)k. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 38-2 (186.5); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 

 Vol. VIIL, p. 73 (1883). 

 Aphelocephala leucopsis, Oberh., Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliilad., 1899, p. 2U; Sharpe, Hand-1. 

 Bds., Vol. IV,, p. 342 (l'J03). 

 Adult male — General colour above broiun, the feathers on the crown of the head with small 

 indistinct darker brown centres; upper wing-coverts like the back; quills brown narrowly edged 

 externally ivith ashy-brown ; upper tail-coverts greyish-brown; tail feathers brotvn at the base, 



