324 TIMELIID.E. 



black band separating the grey feathers of the fore-neck from those of the breast, and the feathers on 

 the centre of the body more distinctly vms/ied ivith creamy-buff. 



Distribution. — Southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and 

 Tasmania. 



/"I^HE present species is generally distributed in favourable situations over the greater 

 J- portion of South-eastern Australia and Tasmania. On the continent it evinces a 

 decided preference for fern and scrub-covered wastes, and lightl)' timbered country near the 

 coast. Inland its favourite haunts are the stony and drier portions of mountain ranges. In 

 \'ictoria it used to be common in the scrub near the beach at Cheltenham, iMordialloc, and 

 Frankston, also in the adjacent hills and open forest country e.xtending across to Western Port 

 Bay. It is fairly numerous in the coastal districts of New South Wales, and I ha\e noted it 

 on the Blue mountains, and stony scrub-covered ranges near the head of navigation of the 

 Clarence River. At Roseville, Middle Harbour, and in the National Park, I have frequently 

 flushed it from low ferns and grass-trees, but always where sheltered above by trees of larger 

 growth. When disturbed it does not fly far, even after being shot at, but suddenly drops into 

 cover, and then runs very rapidly over the ground and fallen logs. So one sees it generally 

 some distance away from the spot that it was first observed or flushed from. 1 have also seen 

 it take refuge in high trees. As Gould has remarked, it rises with a loud burring noise, like a 

 Quail; and, as he observed in Hobart, so it is at the present time in Sydney, often seen exposed 

 for sale in poulterers' shops. 



The wing-measurement of adult males varies from 4-3 to 4'5 inches. In the "Catalogue of 

 Birds in the British Museum," Dr. Sharpe has correctly pointed out in his key" the distinguishing 

 characters of the sexes of this species, but in the following pages both of his descriptions are 

 those of females. 



Mr. A. Zietz has kindly sent me for examination a semi-adult male, procured at Lobenthal, 

 South Australia, also two young birds obtained about eight miles south of Adelaide. Dr. 

 Morgan informs me that this species is fairly common in the neighbourhood of the latter 

 city, but is nowhere plentiful. 



Stomachs of these birds I liave examined contained the remains of various insects and 

 their larva}. 



The nest is a round, open, and loosely-built structure, composed of strips of bark, leaves, 

 and grasses, and so loosely placed together that it will seldom bear removal. An average 

 nest measures externally five inches in diameter, and the inner cup three inches and a half in 

 diameter by one inch and a half in depth. It is always built on the ground, sometimes in a 

 slight depression, and generally close to a fallen log, stone, the base of a sapling or tree, or 

 sheltered by a bush, or hidden by low ferns. At Colo Vale, New South Wales, where these 

 birds are common, Mr. N. Etheridge found a nest in a hollow at the bottom of a burnt out 

 stump. While collecting in company with the late Mr. W. Kershaw, at Cheltenham, Victoria, 

 he informed me that he had on several occasions found in that locality eggs of this species, 

 dropped by the birds on the bare ground under low spreadmg bushes. 



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

 elliptical in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. They are of a 

 dull white, and in rare instances of a faint creamy-white ground colour, which is freely freckled, 

 spotted, and blotched with wood-brown, umber-brown, and similar underlying marks of faint 

 bluish-grey. Generally the smaller markings are uniformly distributed over the shell, while 

 the larger ones are irregularly scattered or predominate at the thicker end. Sometimes the 

 underlying spots or blotches are larger and more numerous than the markings on the outer 



• Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. vii., p 331 (1883). 



