EPHTHIANURA. 



345 



ill 



mm 



The nest is an open cup-shaped structure, irregularly formed exteriorly of coarse dried 

 grasses or plant-stalks, and is neatly lined inside with fine dried grasses, thin fibrous rootlets, 

 and horse-hair. The nests vary somewhat with the materials of which they are formed, 

 according to their position. Those built in low bracken fern usually have small portions of 

 the dead fronds in their outer walls. One I found had a piece of coarse string worked into the 

 side, and others were lined almost entirely with cow-hair. Where available, however, horse- 

 hair is chiefly used as a lining. An a\-erage nest measures three inches and a half in external 

 diameter by three inches in depth, and the inner cup two inches and a quarter in diameter by 

 one inch and a half in depth. The site selected for the nest is varied. Usually it is near the 

 ground, and placed in a low bush, or among bracken fern, the centre of a clump of rushes, 

 under the shelter of a thistle, and — when built near the margin of a swamp — often in low coarse 

 spiny grass, just sufficient to conceal the structure. I have also found them built in the 

 acclimatised Pine (Pintis iiisig'nis), and on one occasion at the mouth of the Yarra River, near 



^Melbourne, in a Melaleuca, 

 eight feet from the ground. 

 The position of this nest, 

 which contained three fresh 

 eggs, also an egg of Lainpvo- 

 coccvx hasalis, was rendered 

 more peculiar by the near 

 proximity of belts of bracken 

 fern, where these birds were 

 breeding in scores, several 

 nests with eggs being found 

 within a few feet of each 

 other. A nest in the Group 

 Collection of the Australian 

 JMuseum, I took on the 12th 

 September, i8gi, within a 

 few yards of the edge of the 

 cliffs, near Bondi. The nests 

 are easily found, for usually 

 the birds sit close, and when 

 flushed resort to the conmion 

 device to draw an intruder 

 away, fluttering along the 

 ground in a seemingly helpless manner, or perching on the top of a low bush, or fence a few- 

 yards distant, seldom a tree, and uttering low notes of distress. 



The nest and eggs figured were found by Mr. C. G. Johnston at Chatsvvood on the 22nd 

 August, 1898. The nest was built eighteen inches from the ground, among some Pteris aqitilina 

 and against the low stump of a Casuarina siihcrosa, from which some new growth had shot out. 

 It is irregularly formed of dried coarse grass-stalks, and portions of fronds of Pteris aqiiilina, 

 the inside being neatly cup-shaped and lined with wiry rootlets, cow-hair, and horse-hair. 

 Externally it measures three inches and a half in diameter by three inches in depth, the inner 

 cup measuring two inches and a quarter in diameter by one inch and a half in depth. It 

 contained three fresh eggs. 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes four in number for a sitting, varying from oval to 

 rounded and slightly elongate-oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and lustreless. 

 Typically, when fresh, they are of a faint reddish-white ground colour before being blown, but 



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NEST .\ND KOGS OF WIllTK-FKONTEI) NUN. 



