298 TIMELIID.E 



below, when about half built, it resembles in shape a bell suspended to a branch, a place being 

 left for the entrance, and the domed lower portion s-radually worked on after; it is then thickly 

 lined inside at the bottom with feathers. It is a remarkable fact that in some scores of these 

 nests I have examined, the entrance was always, with one exception, on the same side as the 

 under surface of the lea\-es of the branch to which it was attached, and consequently when 

 built over water always facing the bank. The exception to this rule is the nest here figured, 

 built in a Maiden's Blush tree, at a height of thirty-fi\e feet from the ground. An entrance 

 had been made in the usual place in this nest, but had been closed up at the back by the 

 birds and another formed in the same side as the front or upper surface of the leaves. I have 

 never known of an instance of Seyiconiis citreogiilaris forming its nest in a bunch of moss 

 hanging from a bough. Two nests that the writer had under observation at Ourimhah were 

 commenced on the 7th November, 1901, and on the 25tli instant three eggs were taken from 

 each. The eggs were deposited on alternate days. Fretiuently two or more nests are found 

 on branches of the same tree, presumably the labour of the same pair of birds during previous 

 seasons. I iiave sawn off branches with nests containing eggs, and four days latt-r found the 

 birds building on the next branch. The nests are almost invariably conspicuous objects and 

 -easily seen. One I found on the 27th November, 1901, containing two incubated eggs, 

 however, was fairly well concealed. It was attached to the underside of a dead leafy bough 

 of a large Maiden's Blush tree that had fallen into a creek, the nest being only two feet from 

 the water. The nest figured on the preceding page was found close by the same day, and 

 contained two fresh eggs. 



Mr. Edwin Ashby forwarded me a box of specimens for examination, collected by him in 

 the Blackall Ranges, Southern Queensland, at an altitude of about 1,500 feet, and among them 

 are two nests of this species and several of its eggs. They are somewhat similar structures to 

 those described above, but are built in Lawyer-vines (Calamus australis). With them Mr. Ashby 

 sent the following information : — " I found about ten or a dozen nests of 5. citrcogularis during 

 the three days I was in the Blackall Ranges, the 2gth September to the ist October, 1903. 

 All were suspended on Lawyer-vines, mostly eight to ten feet from the ground, one as high as 

 sixteen feet. The first nest found must have been twelve feet high, and contained three eggs, 

 two olive-brown and one light cream colour. In one place a lawyer-vine, probably blown off 

 some tree by the wind, had fallen right across a running creek, lodging on some low bushes 

 on the other side, thus making a suspension bridge over the water. There were four nests on 

 this vine, two directly over the water, one almost over it, and the fourth about two yards from 

 the edge of the bank. In company with Mr. W. L. May, during the two days available, we 

 visited this spot and spent some time watching the nests in the hope of seeing the birds go in. 

 One was soon found to be occupied by an Acantkiza, wdth nearly fledged young, and of the 

 same species as I send you skins. The second nest contained typical eggs of Scricornis citrco- 

 gularis. On the 1st October we took the eggs from the middle nest, and were surprised to find 

 that they were the eggs of another species of Sericornis, not S. citreogiilaris." 



The skins o{ Acantkiza, forwarded by Mr. Ashby, are those of Acanthiza pusilla. One of 

 the two eggs taken on the ist October from the nest of Scricornis citreogiilaris, is that of S. 

 magnirostris, and is precisely similar to two eggs of the latter species taken by Dr. Ramsay in 

 the Richmond River District, on the 3rd November, 1866. Sericornis magnirostris often takes 

 possession of the deserted nests of Scricornis citreogularis. 



In the northern coastal districts of New South \\'ales, the breeding season usually com- 

 mences at the latter end of August or early in September, and continues during the four 

 following months. In the Hawkesbury River and lUawarra Districts, nidification begins about 

 the middle of October, and fresh eggs have been taken at the end of December. 



