ORTHONYX. 319 



breast olive-broivn ; abdomen dull slaty-brown, with narrow indistinct whitish tips to the feathers ; 

 thighs and under lail-coverls dull olive-brown ; bill black; leys and feet blackish-brown ; iris dark 

 broivn. Total length lOS inches, wing 5-2, tail 4-^, bill 7, tarsus 1-9. 



Adult female — Like the male, but smaller, an I having more of a rufescent-olive wash to the 

 upper parts, and the throat and fore-neck orange-rufous instead of white. Total length 9 o inches, 

 iving JfO, tail 4, bill OGo, tarsus 175. 



Distribution. — North-eastern Queensland. 



AT^HIS species was discovered by the late Mr. Edward Spalding, about twenty-five miles 

 -L inland from Cardwell, and it was named after him by Dr. Ramsay, who described it in 

 the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society," in i868. Although its range extends northward 

 as far as the Bloomfield River District, it was for many years an extremely rare species in 

 collections. Consequent upon Messrs. E. J. Cairns and Robt. Grant being sent by the Trustees 

 of the Australian Museum on two occasions to the Bellenden Ker Range, the Institution was 

 enriched by numerous examples in all stages of plumage; the Tooth-billed Bower-bird and the 

 present species being the two commonest birds in the collections brought back by them. 



Mr. Grant has supplied me with the following notes; — "We usually found Orthonyx 

 spaldingi in the ranges around Boar Pocket, Lake Eicham, the L'pper Russell and biarron 

 Rivers. Just at daybreak its beautiful, clear, chirping call-notes may be heard. If one proceeds 

 cautiously towards the singing bird, a small company of five or six individuals may be found 

 scratching among the fallen leaves, or the decaying wood of a fallen tree. It is extremely 

 shy, and usually on being disturbed instantly runs around the trunk or disappears in the 

 surrounding dense undergrowth; but occasionally one will run along the top of a log, evidently 

 with the purpose of watching the intruder. Their loosely constructed and partially dome- 

 shaped nests are built of thin sticks, twigs, dead leaves, and mosses, and are usually placed in a 

 mass of lawyer-vines, or in a stag-horn or bird-nest fern growing on a tree, at a height of six 

 to eight feet from the ground. One, found built in a bird-nest fern, and in which the female 

 was sitting, Mr. Cairn reached by standing on my shoulders. This nest contained two eggs, 

 but in all the others we found only one egg for a sitting." 



From further north, in the Bloomfield River District, Mr. Frank Hislop writes me;— 

 "Spalding's Spine-tail is only found in the scrub on the mountains, and generally in small 

 flocks from four to six in number. They live on insects, worms, and berries. Their nests, 

 which are dome-shaped, are outwardly made of small sticks, and lined inside with moss, and 

 are placed on a log or in a bunch of lawyer-vines; I have also found them among the leaves in 

 the side of a lawyer-palm. Generally they are not higher than two feet from the ground, and 

 only one egg is laid for a sitting." 



The eggs are pure white, and vary in shape from swollen-oval, somewhat sharply pointed 

 at the smaller end, to elongate-oval, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. 

 Two average specimens measure ;— Length (A) 1-45x1 inches; (B) 1-38 xi-i inches. .\n 

 abnormally elongated specimen, in the collection of Mr. Charles French, Junr., taken in the 

 Bloomfield River District, on the Sth iNIarch, 1899, measures; — i-6x i-o2 inches. 



Young birds have the general colour above brownish-black, the feathers of the upper back 

 being conspicuously centred with light ochraceous-brown ; rump and upper tail-coverts dull 

 chocolate-brown; upper wing-coverts blackish-brown, broadly tipped with light chocolate- 

 brown; quills blackish-brown, the apical half of the outer webs of the primaries margined 

 with dull brown, becoming richer in colour on the secondaries, the innermost series of which 

 are broadly margined on both webs with chocolate-brown; tail-feathers blackish-brown; head 

 and hind-neck blackish-brown; a line of feathers from the nostril over the eye chocolate-brown, 

 as are also the tips of the feathers on the sides of the hind-neck; chin, throat, fore-neck, and 



