308 TIMELIID.E. 



Campbell, of the Geological Survey of Western Australia, also found it breeding in October, 

 1901, near Hannan's Lake, and forwarded its nests and eggs to the Trustees of the Australian 

 Museum. At Point Cloates, North-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter informs me that it 

 occurs both near the coast and inland, although it would not be much noticed but for its 

 beautiful song. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland sends me the following notes: — "Red-throats (Pyi-flioltniins bruunciis) 

 are modest-plumaged little birds, but beautiful songsters. I first saw them near .Mice Springs, 

 in Central Australia, in thick mulga scrub. They were very tame, and whether among the 

 branches of the low bushes, or hopping about the ground in search of small insects, they keep 

 up a constant twitter. They were again seen in Western Australia, along the Cue road, and 

 up to the neighbourhood of Lake Augusta, but were not noticed in the north of the desert. 

 Wherever these birds exist, their notes soon betray their presence. They breed in low bushes, 

 making a nest much like that of a Mahinis, and lay three or four eggs for a sitting." 



Dr. .\. M. iNIorgan noted this species as being fairly common between Port .Augusta and 

 Mount Gunson, in South Australia, and found a pair building on the 14th .Vugust, igoo, at 

 Port Augusta, in a depression in the ground under a thick bush. During a trip he made to 

 the Gawler Ranges in .\ugust, 1902; and again, in company with Dr. Chenery, an adult female 

 of this species was obtained, which he kindly sent me with the following note: — " PyrrlwUrMus 

 bninncus was common wherever there was any cover at all. A female, shot on the 12th .\ugust, 

 at Wippipipee, had a grey throat. While watching some Maliiri, a pair came quite close to me, 

 one of which had a red, the other a grey throat; both were singing, taking it in turns. They 

 are beautiful songsters. The song is like that of Acrocephalus, but is not so loud, and is more 

 sustained. The note of the female is similar to but harsher than that of the male. They are 

 shy birds, and as a rule require a good deal of stalking to secure specimens." 



The nests of this species vary somewhat in size and in the materials of which tiiey are 

 formed. One now before me, found by Mr. W. D. Campbell on the 27th October, 1901, on the 

 eastern side of Hannan's Lake, in Western Australia, is spherical in form, with a rounded 

 entrance in the side, and is outwardly formed of very long thin strips of bark and bark fibre, 

 intermingled witli line dried grasses and warmly lined inside with feathers. This nest was 

 built in the stems of a low hush, close to the ground, and contained three fresh eggs. It 

 measures externally four inches in diameter, and across the entrance one inch. Another one, 

 taken bv Mr. C. E. Cowle in .August, 1899, at lllamurta, Central Australia, is likewise spherical 

 in form, but is constructed throughout of dead soft dull grey grasses, and has no other lining; 

 it averages five inches and a half in external diameter. With this nest Mr. Cowle sent the 

 following note: — "I took the Red-throat's nest at the foot of a dead Cassia bush; it was about 

 eight inches off the ground, on some dry grass, and contained three eggs, but I have found 

 them with four. At first sight I took it for a Chestnut-eared Finch's nest, but the latter birds 

 here always use a straw-coloured material for the construction of their nests. I found another 

 nest the same day, built in dead spinifex, containing three fresh eggs." 



The eggs are three or four in number for a sitting, oval or elongate-oval in form, the shell 

 being close-grained, smooth, and more of less lustrous. The ground colour varies from olive- 

 brown to clove-brown, and dark brown slightly tinged with purple to purplish-brown, some 

 specimens being uniform in colour, but as a rule having a clouded zone or cap on the larger 

 end, of a darker shade of the ground colour. A rare variety is of a faint purplish-grey ground 

 colour, with an indistinct zone on the larger end formed of numerous fleecy markings of 

 purplish-brown. 1 have also seen specimens of an olive-brown ground colour, with a well 

 defined blackish band on the larger end. A set of three, taken on the i8th September, 1880, 

 at Tyndarie, New South Wales, by Mr. James Ramsay, measures as follows: — Length (A) 

 078 X 0'58 inches; (B) 079 x 0-58 inches; (C) 078x0-59 inches. .\ set of three, taken in 



