306 TIMELIID.E. 



Stomachs I examined of birds received in the flesh from Mr. Atkinson in June, 1902, 

 contained the remains of insects and seeds. Others had seeds only and a few pieces of gravel. 

 The walls of the stomach are thick and muscular. 



From notes made by Dr. L. Holden while resident at Circular Head, Tasmania, I have 

 extracted the following: — "On the 29th August, 1886, in a dense shrub, seven feet from the 

 ground, I found a nest of Scriconiis humilis, with two eggs. It was a domed-shaped structure, 

 with a side entrance, formed of dry grass, fragments of bark, and thickly lined with feathers. 

 Usually they are built close to the ground. Near Circular Head I found another nest of this 

 species on the 20th October, containing three eggs. It was built in the bushy top of a dead 

 half fallen tea-tree, being well concealed by the leafy twigs, and was fully five feet from the 

 ground. This nest was outwardly formed of dry grass, bark, and dead leaves, and the interior 

 was lined w-ith feathers. Two days later I found a nest built in a tussock, about eighteen 

 inches from the ground, containing three newly fledged young; and in the following week 

 another, in a similar position, with three young; also two nests, each containing two eggs. On 

 the 23rd August, 1887, I found two nests built in a tangle at the foot of tea-trees. They were 

 between two and three feet from the ground, and each contained two eggs. Three days later I 

 took one egg from each nest. These nests must have been begun at the end of July. One of 

 them looked so much like a last season's nest that I plucked it from its site and carried it some 

 yards in that belief. I carefully replaced it, and visiting these nests again on the 31st August, 

 found each of the remaining eggs hatched. On the 3rd September I came across two newly- 

 fledged young in some tea-tree scrub, but could not find the nest. The parents chattered 

 anxiously, but they did not feign lameness, although one perched within a few inches of my 

 face in its anxiety to attract my attention. On the 30th August, 1888, I found a nest in the 

 village paddock with two eggs almost hatched. The nest was placed near the edge of some 

 open scrub, and built absolutely on the ground, being protected and hidden by a few dried 

 twigs and blades of grass." 



With several nests and sets of eggs of this species, received from Mr. R. X. .\tkinson, he 

 sent the following information: — "At Waratah, Mount Bischoff, Scriconiis humilis is generally 

 met with in the undergrowth or on the ground. When in search for food, it may be seen 

 hopping over or under logs, flitting about from stone to stone, or in and out of the young 

 Beech-trees (Fagus cunninghami), locally called 'myrtles,' and of which the forests here are 

 principally formed. I have seen these birds eat insects and their larvae, also worms. The nest 

 is usually built in a low bush close to the ground, sometimes by the side of a log. It is generally 

 well concealed, and although I found one conspicuously placed on top of a cut rush clump, I 

 have more often found them by watching the birds. Three eggs are laid for a sitting, and the 

 breeding season commences here in August, and continues until the end of December. I have 

 found the nest of this species in August, when there was a foot deep of snow on the ground." 



The nest is domed, or nearly spherical in form, with a small rounded entrance in the side. 

 It is outwardly formed of coarse grasses and their sheaths, intermingled with a small quantity 

 of bark fibre and green mosses; the inside is lined with fine grasses, bark fibre, and a thick 

 layer of hair, fur, and feathers; in the nests now before me, are a number of feathers from 

 the Yellow-bellied Parrakeet. An average nest measures seven inches and a half in height, 

 by five inches and a half in diameter, and across the entrance one inch and a quarter. 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, oval, thick oval, or elongate-oval in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. The ground colour varies 

 from pale purplish-buflf to purplish-white, and has numerous minute freckles, scratches, or 

 irregular-shaped markings of umber or purplish-brown, confined as a rule to the thicker end 

 of the shell, where the markings are confluent and form a more or less well defined cap or 

 zone. Occasionally specimens are found almost pure white, or having only a few isolated 



