ORIOMA. 311 



has a very thick layer of bark-fibre, and at the bottom of the nest a warm lining of feathers. 

 The nest forwarded by Mr. Gabriel is lined principally with the long downy feathers from the 

 flanks of the Lyre-bird, and also some from the Yellow-breasted Robin. Externally it measures 

 fi\-e inches and a half in width by four inches and a half in height, and across the entrance 

 one inch and a quarter. 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, and \ary from swollen to elongate-oval in form, 

 the shell to the naked eye being apparently close-grained, smooth, and more or less lustrous, 

 but when e.xamined with a lens numerous pittings will be found over the entire surface, which 

 are more pronounced in some specimens than others. In ground colour they vary from 

 drab to smoky-brown and dusky-grey, being as a rule darker on the larger end, where there is 

 a more or less distinct band formed of small confluent spots or fleecy markings of a darker 

 shade of the ground colour. Others are uniform in colour, while some have ill-defined blackish 

 irregular-shaped spots and dots distributed over the entire surface of the shell. On looking 

 closely into the eggs of this species, the ground colour in some specimens appears to be 

 cracked in fine faint undulating rings, quite encircling the shell. Others have the narrower 

 half of a distinctly lighter shade of the ground colour, and in marked contrast to the remainder 

 of the shell. A specimen now before me has a broad wreath of blackish dots and spots on 

 the larger end, enclosing a much smaller and less distinct band on the top of the egg. An egg 

 of a set of two, taken at Childers, South Gippsland, Victoria, in October, 1878, measures; — 

 Length 1-04 x 073 inches. A set of two, taken at Cambewarra, New South Wales, in 

 November, 1886, measures: — Lenrjth (A) 1-07 xo'8 inches; (B) i-i x 0-77 inches. A set taken 

 at Bayswater, \'ictoria, on the 8th December, 1897, measures: — Length (A) i-i X077 inches; 

 (B) I -07 X o'8 inches. 



October and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season of this 

 species. 



Origrna rubricata. 



EOCK WARBLER. 

 Sylvia rubricata Latli., Ind. Orn,, SuppL, p. Iv., (1801). 



Origma rubricata, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III., pi. 69 (1848) ; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 

 Vol. I., p. 385 (186.5); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VII., p. 135 (1883); id., Hand-1. 

 Bds., Vol. IV., p. 207 (1903). 



Adult male — General colour above dark ashy-brown, the rump slightly tinged tvilh rufous; 

 upper tail-coverts blackisli; upper wing-coverts like the back; quills dark brown; tail feathers 

 blackish; head dark ashy-brown; forehead and feathers in front of and around the eye washed ivith 

 rufous; ear-coverts dull rufous-brown; feathers of the chin and throat greyish-white ivith blackish 

 bases; remainder of the under surface dark ferruginous, and washed with broivn on the flanks and 

 thighs; under tail-coverts dark broiun with a ferruginous wash tvhich is more conspiciwus on the 

 edges of tlie feathers ; bill brownish-black ; legs and feet brownish-hlack; iris reddish-brown. Total 

 length in the flesh 5-6 inches, wing J-6o, tail 2-3, bill 0:5, tarsxis 0-9. 



Adult frmale — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — New South Wales. 

 C?N O far as I have observed, the northern and central portions of Eastern New South Wales 

 V«-_? constitute the exclusive habitat of this species. Nowhere is it more abundantly 

 distributed than in the numerous rocky ravines and gullies lying between the Hawkesbury 

 River and Port Jackson; its range extending in a southerly direction into the Illawarra 

 District, and west to the gullies of the inland slopes of the Blue Mountains. 



