CALAMANTHUS. 353 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me: — "Whilst camped beside a lagoon, about f.nir miles from 

 the Fitzro}- River, North-western Australia, and nearly opposite Xoonkoombah Station, I saw 

 a great many examples of Ephthiaiuira cvocca. Their brilliant yellow plumage and black band 

 at once attracted attention, but tlu-ir mode of life was very different from that of E. aurifrons. 

 Whilst the latter delights in searching for its insect food amongst salt-bush or on the ground, 

 E. ci'occa is more at home in the branches of trees, about fifteen to twentv feet high, where it 

 hops about searching for insects either in the bark or on the foliage. Occasionally they may 

 be seen on the ground. They do not appear to associate in flocks, like any of the other 

 species, but each works on its own account. Their nests are built in the usual cup-shaped 

 form, and the one from which my set of eggs was taken was placed in a thistle about four 

 feet high." 



A nest of this species, taken from a low bush in December, 1897, near Derby, North-western 

 Australia, is a small cup-shaped structure, irregularly formed externally of thin dried stalks of 

 herbaceous plants, and lined inside with fine wiry grasses and rootlets. 



The eggs are three in number for a sitting, oval in form, and pure white, with minute dots 

 and spots of blackish-red sparingly distributed near the surface of the shell. A set of three 

 measures: — Length (A) o-6 x 0-43 inches; (B) o-52 x 0-45 inches; (C) 0-62 x 0-44 inches. A set 

 of three in jNIr. G. A. Heartland's collection, taken by Mr. E. J. Harris, has the markings 

 confined almost entirely to the larger end, where they assume the form of fairl)- well defined 

 zones: — Length (.V) 0-67 x 0-32 inches; (B) 0-7 x o'~, inches; (C) o-66 x 0-51 inches. 



Calamanthus fuliginosus. 



STRIATED EEED-LARK. 

 Anthus faliyinosHs, Yig. li: Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. XV., p. 23(1 {L'^iG). 

 Calamanthus fuliginosus, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III., pi. 70 (1848); id., Handhk. Bds. 



Austr., Vol. L, p. 388 (1865); Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mu.s., Vol. VIL, p. 335 (188-3); id., 



Hand-1. Bds., Vol. IV., p. 25 (1903). 



Adult male — -General colour above greenish-olive, all the feathers centred with black, bnt 

 with Uie streaks narrorver and less distinct on the rump: v.pper wing-coverts blackish, margi-ned 

 with greenish-olive ; qii,ilh blackis/i-bro>vn, margined externally with greenish-olive, except the outer 

 primaries, ivhich are narrowly edged ivith asliy-white ; tail feathers olive-brown, the central pair 

 narrowlg .■itreaked ivith black along the shaft, which widens out in an elongated mark near the 

 the tip, the remainder crossed u-ith a subterminal band of black except on lite extreme edge of the 

 outer web, and having a spot of pale ashy-brown at the end of their inner webs; forehead slightly 

 washed with rufous; a line commencing behind the nostril orange-buff and gradually passing into 

 pale yellowish-white as it extends over and behind the eye; lores dusky-broion ; ear-coverts brown, 

 with narrow fulvous shaft-lines; chin and throat ivhite streaked with black; remainder of the under 

 surface yelloivish-buff streaked ivith black except on the centre of the lower breast and abdomen, which 

 is of a imiform clearer buff'; flanks and under tail-coverts yellowish-buff, streaked, with black; bill 

 dark brown, the loicer mandible fleshy-brown, e.ixept near the tip; "iris light buff" (.\tkinson). 

 Total length in the flesh o -S inches, wing 2-4'j, tail 2- -i, bill OS, tarsus 1. 



Adult female — Differs from the male in having the line extending from the nostril over the eye 

 richer in colour; the chin and throat bnff instead of white, and less distinctly streaked with black. 



Distribution. — Tasmania. 



Aa.34 



