EPHTIIIANURA. 349 



Mr. Tom Carter sends me the following note from Point Cloates, North-western Australia:— 

 "Ephthanum tricolor is one of our commonest winter visitors, but it is more numerous some 

 seasons than others. It was very abundant in 1898— a hurricane year. Usually it appears 

 after our first winter rains, and breeds during July, and sometimes again after rain in March, 

 laying three or four eggs. On 6th March, i8g8, I took a nest with three eggs, also an egg of 

 Lamprococcyx basalis: another, on the i6th July following, with three eggs; one, with three eggs, 

 on the 13th July, 1899; a'so one on the 14th July, 1901, containing four eggs." 



The nest is an open structure, irregularly formed externally of the flowering stalks of 

 herbaceous plants, wiry rootlets, or coarse grass-stems; the inner portion, which is cup-shaped, 

 being lined with very fine rootlets, and when available a small quantity of horse-hair. An 

 average nest measures externally four inches in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth, 

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

 Like the nests of Ephthianurn nlbifrons, they vary much in their outer dimensions, some being 

 broad-rimmed on one side of the structure only, forming a kind of small platform, others being 

 uniform in size and evenly formed throughout. One found at Moree had small nodules of earth 

 attached to the coarse rootlets with which it was externally formed. The nest is usually built 

 in a low shrub, or bush, near the ground, and occasionally under the shelter of dwarf herbage. 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes four, and in rare instances five in number for a 

 sittmg, oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and in some specimens slightly 

 lustrous. They are of a rich fleshy-white when fresh and before being blown, pure white after- 

 wards, sprinkled over with small dots and spots, varying from rich red to purplish-red and 

 reddish-black. As a rule, the markings are smaller and darker than those found on E. nlbifrons, 

 and predominate on the thicker end, but seldom form even an imperfect zone. A set of three, 

 taken by Mr. J. A. Thorpe at Moree, on the 9th November, 1897, measures as follows :--Length 

 (A) 0-62 X 0-5 inches; (B) o-6i x 0-48 inches; (C) 0-63 x 0-49 inches. A set of three, taken by 

 Mr. C. E. Cowle,on the 7th December, 1895, on Missionary Plain, Central Australia, measures:— 

 (A) 0-68 X 0-5 inches; (B) 0-67 x 0-48 inches; (C) o-68 x 0-49 inches. 



In New South Wales, nidification begins shortly after the arrival of these birds in October, 

 the eggs being usually laid towards the latter end of that month, or early in November, but 

 the late Mr. H. P. C. Ashworth found nests with eggs in December. 



Ephthianura aurifrons. 



ORANGE-FKONTED NUN. 

 Ephthianura aurifrons, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 148; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III., pi. 

 G.T (1848); id., Handbk. BJs, Austr., Vol. I., p. .380 (1865); Sharps, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 

 Vol. VII., p. G68 (1883); id., Hand-I. Bds., Vol. IV., p. 148 (1903). 

 AuuLT MXhE— General colour above dull yellow, the feathers of the hind-neck and hack having 

 dark brown centres; upper iving-coverts dark brown, margined with yellow; primaries brown, 

 narrowly edged with yellow, the secondaries dark brown with ivhitish tips, and externally margined 

 with yellow; lower rump and upper tail-coverts bright yellow; tail feathers blackish-brown edged 

 with yellow, more broadly at the base, all but the central pair ivith a large white spot at the tip of the 

 inner web, the outer web of the outermost feather on either side dull white ; crown of the head rich 

 golden-yellow, deeper in colour on the forehead, and gradually passing into yellow on the nape which 

 is streaked ivith brown; ear-coverts golden-yellow; lores, feathers below the eye, and the throat black; 

 remainder of the under surface golden-yelloiu, slightly paler on the sides of the body; under tail- 

 coverts yellow; bill black; legs and feet blackish-brown; iris orange. Total length JfS inches, wing 

 2-5, tail 1:5, bill 0-J/), tarsus 0-72. 



Aa.53 



