350 TIMELIIDJ-. 



found in grass tussocks in dry situations were formed entirely with dried grasses, lined with 

 feathers. The site selected for the nest is varied, sometimes it is built on the ground, in or 

 underneath a tuft of rank grass; but m )re often have I found it artfully concealed at the 

 bottom of a low. stunted, thickly foliaged bush, growing in water or in wet and swampy 

 ground at the mouth of the Yarra River. The bird at all times sits very close, and I 

 discovered most nests by pulling the bushes open and flushing the birds while sitting. .-\t 

 .Albert Park I used to find them sheltered underneath dried grass tussocks. On one occasion, 

 when the nest was built in short coarse grass, just sufficient to conceal the structure, the bird 

 allowed itself to be trodden upon before leaving its eggs, which were in an advanced state 

 of incubation. 



The eggs are usually three, in two instances I have found four in number for a sitting, 

 oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and more or less lustrous. They vary from 

 a light chocolate^to faint purplish-brown, which is indistinctly freckled and spotted with a 

 slightly darker shade of the ground colour, predominating as a rule on the thicker end, and 

 sometimes forming there a clouded cap or zone. \ set of three, taken at Albert Park, near 

 Melbourne, during July, 1875, measures:— Length (A) 077 x 0-58 inches; (B) 079 x o-6 inches; 

 (C) 0-8X0-6 inches. A set of three, taken on the 17th June, 1880, at the mouth of the Yarra 

 River, measures:— Length (A) o-8i x 0-57 inches; (B) 078 x 0-57 inches; (C) o-8 x 0-58 inches. 

 The eggs of this species are distinctly smaller than those of Calamaiitliiis fiiligiiwsiis, as will be 

 found on reference to Plate 1>. \II.. where both are figured. 



This species is, without exception, the first of all species to commence building in \'ictoria, 

 starting before the winter has commenced, and rearing its young during the coldest months 

 of the year. June and July are the principal months for obtaining eggs, and I have known 

 them to be taken as early as the 24th May. .\t the mouth of the Yarra. near Melbourne, 

 on the 17th June. 1880, I found four nests, each containing three fresh eggs. 



Calanianthus campestris. 



FIELD KEED-LARK. 

 Pralicola campestris, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, p. 171. 

 Calamanlhns campestris, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III. pi. 71 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. 



Austr., Vol. L, p. 389 (186.5); Sharp?, Cat. Bds. I5rit. Mus, Vol. VII., p. .502 (188.3); 



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

 Adult male — General colour above ashy-brown, all the feathers streaked down the centre jviih 

 dark brown, more broadly on the back; upper wing-coverts brown, the greater series dark browti in 

 the centre; qnills broivn, externally edged with pale brown; upper tail-coverts rnfous-brown ; tail 

 feathers reddish-brown, crossed by a broad snbterminal black band except on the central pair ; the 

 lateral featliers tipped with white on the inner webs, pale brown on the outer except near the shaft; 

 forehead and sinciput light rufous, narrowly streaked with dark brown; lores, and a distinct eye- 

 brow white; a spot in front of the eye rufous; ear-coverts light rufous with lohite shaft lines; cheeks 

 and throat white; fore-neck narrowly streaked with dark brown; remainder of the under surface 

 faint bvffy-white, passing into buffy-brown on the sides of the body, and all distinctly streaked with 

 dark brown except on the centre of the breast and the abdomen; under tail coverts buffy-brown with 

 whitish tips; "bill light brown; legs and feet light brown; iris yellow" (Morgan). 



Adult female — -Differs from the male in having the cheeks and throat faint buffy-white instead 

 of pure white, but is similarly streaked with dark brown. 



Distribution. — South Australia, North-western Australia. 



