CALAMANTH0S. 357 



/■ |(^HE I'ield ReeJ-Lark inhabits Soutli Australia and the western portion of the continent, 

 JL Gould describing the type from a specimen procured in the former State. The descrip- 

 tions on the preceding page are taken from examples obtained by Mr. George Masters at Port 

 Lincoln in November, 1865. Dr. A. M. Morgan and Dr. A. Chenery met witli it during a trip 

 made to the Gawler Ranges in August, 1902, but only one bird was shot — an adult male, near the 

 Government Tank at Mount Ive. Mr. Tom Carter forwarded me a specimen for examination 

 from Point Cloates, North-western .\ustralia. It is precisely similar in colour and markings 

 to those procured in South Australia. Subsequently Mr. Carter sent me the following note: — 

 " Calamanthus campcstris, is common on the coast here, but I have never met with it any distance 

 inland. It is of skulking habits, and would not be noticed much but for its cheerful notes, 

 which are usually uttered from the top of a thick shrub. It lays after any rain, winter or 

 summer, and I have seen fledged young in July. The nest is snugly hid in thick undergrowth, 

 and three or four eggs are laid for a sitting. Numbers of these birds haunt the co\er formed 

 by the 'roley-poley ' growth being blown up against the paddock fences, and which is held there 

 by grass growing through it, affording thereby a safe retreat for small birds." 



Mr. G. xA. Keartland informs me that during the journey of the Calvert Exploring Expedi- 

 tion in Western Australia, this species was frequently met with in the samphire and salt-bush, 

 in August, i8g6. Several of their nests were found built beneath the latter kind of shrub, and 

 two lying in exposed positions on the bare ground without any attempt at concealment on the 

 part of the owners. The nests were globular in form, with an entrance in the side, being 

 outwardly constructed with dried grasses, and lined inside with feathers. Mr. E. R. Morgan 

 informs me that he found a nest with four eggs near Mount Gunson, South Australia, on the 

 31st July, 1899. 



The eggs are three or four in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being close- 

 grained, smooth, and lustrous. They are of a uniform pale chocolate except on the larger end, 

 where they are of a slightly darker hue, forming in some specimens dull clouded caps, or 

 indistinct zones. xV set of three, taken near Port Lincoln, in South Australia, measures: — 

 Length (A) 078 X 0-6 inches; (B) o-8ixo-62 inches; (C) 0-82 x 0-63 inches. The set of four 

 taken by Mr. E. R. Morgan near Mount Gunson, South Australia, measures: — (A) 0-83 x 0-62 

 inches; (B) o-8 x 0-62 inches; (C) o-8i x 0-63 inches; (D) 0-85 x 0-63 inches. 



Calamanthus isahdlimis,''- of Central Australia, is a desert form of the present species. In 

 addition to the more extended pale rufous colour of the head and uniform isabelline hue of the 

 upper parts, on which the streaks are almost entirely lost, the bill is longer and straighter than 

 in C. campcstris. Their habits, too, are quite different, the former frequenting desolate gibber 

 plains, and, as described by Mr. G. .\. Keartland in his field-notes, "far away from scrub or 

 shelter of any kind, two of these little birds were seen running over the stones or gibbers as 

 actively and quickly as Dotterel on the sea-beach." 



* North— Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Centr. Austr., Vol. ii., Zool., p. 85 (i8g6). 



