36l' TIMELllD.E. 



and before it reached its destination another would follow, and so a regular procession was kept 

 up. The birds always alight near the base of the tree, and then proceed by a succession of 

 jumps to the topmost branches. At Henbury, on the Finke River, Central Australia, I saw 

 four of these birds working at one nest. Whilst three carried the material, the fourth placed it 

 in position. Their huge dome-shaped nests, formed of sticks and twigs, and indistinguishable 

 from those of P.siipciriHosns, were found with fresh eggs on the Cue Road in June, and also later 

 on, at the Fitzroy River, North-western Australia, in January and February, 1897. As many 

 as nine nests were found within a radius of one hundred yards. In addition 10 a variety of 

 other noises, these birds often mew like a cat, hence the name 'Cat-bird' is often given them in 

 the north." 



The eggs are usually three in number for a sitting, and cannot be distinguished in colour 

 from those of its larger congener P. temporalis. In fact the eggs of all species of the genus are 

 so similar in form, in their varying shades of ground colour, and in the characteristic darker 

 hair-lines that the description of the different varieties of one species would be almost applicable 

 to all. Typically the eggs of P. temporalis are the largest, but small eggs of this species are 

 indistinguishable from those of P. ruheculus and P. ruficcps. In average size those of P. 

 supcrciliosus are the smallest. 



The eggs of Pomatostomus nibeailiis, are oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, 

 and slightly lustrous. They are of a faint purplish-grey ground colour, with an open net-work 

 of fine hair-lines and broad blurred smears of dark brown distributed over the surface of the 

 shell: — Length (A) 1-07 x 072 inches; (B) 1-07 x 072 inches; (C) 1-07 x 0-73 inches. An egg 

 taken by the late Mr. T. H. Howyer-Bower, near Derby in 1886, is of a pale brown ground 

 colour, indistinctly mottled with greyish-brown, and devoid of the usual streaky hair-lines of 

 darker brown, except one at either end of the egg: — Length 0-99 x 0-69 inches. Three eggs, 

 taken at Port Darwin, are of a pale sienna-brown ground colour, and distinctly marked or 

 veined with blackish-brown: — Length (A) i x 07 inches; (B) 1-02x072 inches: (C) roi x 073 

 inches. 



Pomatostomus superciliosus. 



WHITE-EYE HKOWEU CH-VITEKEK. 

 Pomatorhinus superciliosus, Vig. &. Horsf., 'I'rans. Linn. Soc, Vol. XV., p. XM (1826); (iould, 



Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. IV., pi. 22 (1848); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. .Mus., Vol. VII , p. +19 



(1883); id, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. IV., p. 14 (1903). 

 Pomatostomus superciliosus, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr, Vol. I., p. 482 (186.5). 



Addlt hale —General colour above dull ashy-broivn ; ivings brown, the qnills exterually edged 

 with paler.brovm ; tail dark brown, the lateral feat] lers brnadly tipped ivith white; crown of the head 

 dull ashy-brown; a broad line extending from the nostril on to the sides of the hind-neck white, 

 bordered above and beloio luith a narrow line of dusky brorvn fenlliers ; lores du'<ky brown; enr-coverts 

 dark silky-brown; cheeks, throat, and centre of the breast rvhite, the latter slightly washed with brown; 

 sides of the body, abdomen, and thighs fulvous-brown ; under tail-coverts dark brown; oill blackish- 

 brown, fleshy-grey at the base of the lower mandible; legs and feet blackish-broiim .■ f))« straw-yellow. 

 Total length in the flesh 8 inches, wing S'S, tail 3'3, bill 1, tarsus 1. 



Adult fe.m.^lb — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Central .\ustralia. 

 Western Australia, North-western Australia. 



