364 TIMELIID.B. 



Ranges in August, 1902, remarks: — " Pomatostomus supevciliosus was common wherever there was 

 a vestige of timber. Almost every tree, large or small, contained portions of an old nest. We 

 saw Xcrophila hucopsis searching them for fur, and also found Malurus lencopterus and Taniopygia 

 castaiwtis using the nests as roosting-places. A few nests were found being built, but we did not 

 get any with eggs." 



The nest is a dome-sliaped structure, with a spout-like entrance, similar to that of its 

 congener, Pomatostomtis temporalis, but smaller. Externally it is formed of long thin sticks and 

 twigs, and is lined inside at the bottom of the domed portion with bark fibre, cow-dung, wool, 

 fur, or dried grasses, according to the locality in which it is built. In central and western 

 New South Wales the crown of a pine, acacia, or gum, is a favourite nesting-site, also the 

 bushy sides of horizontal branches, about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground; but. as will be 

 seen by Dr. Macgillivray's note, he has found it breeding in bushes. An average nest measures 

 externally ten inches in diameter by eleven inches in height, and across the entrance two inches. 



The eggs are usually three in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth, and lustrous. Pale greyish-brown is the predominating ground colour, 

 but it varies to whity-brown and buffy-brown. Some are slightly marked or veined with 

 blackish-brown, but less so as a rule than those of any other species; others liave indistinct 

 mottlings of a darker shade of the ground colour, or a combination of hair-lines and almost 

 obsolete spots, and some are entirely devoid of markings. .V set of three, taken at Dubbo, New 

 South Wales, measures; (A) 0-93 x 0-67 inches; (B)o-gixo-65 inches; (C) 0-9 x 0-65 inches. 

 A set of four, taken near Louth, measures:- -(A) 0-97 x 0-7 inches; (H) 0-93 x 0-67 inches; (C) 

 I X 0-67 inches; (D) 0-97 x 0*67 inches. 



Relative to the number of eggs laid by this species for a sitting, Mr. I-;, i I. Lane writes me 

 as follows: — "From my experience, three eggs is the usual number laid by Fomatostomus supeV' 

 ciliosns for a sitting, although on one occasion I found five eggs in a nest. Ly the difference in 

 their ground colour, however, they were evidently laid by two birds." 



From the middle of May until the end of November constitutes the usual breeding season 

 of tins species in Eastern Australia. 



Pomatostomus ruficeps. 



CHESTNUT-CROWNED CHATTERER. 



Poinalorhiiiiis riificeps, Hartl., .Journ. fiir Orii., l!^.").'i, p. 21; Goiilti, Bds. Austr., SiippL, pi, .'iS 

 (1869); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VII., p. -t'JO (188:i); id., Hand-I. Bds. Vol. 

 IV., p. 14 (1903). 



Pomatostomus rujiceps, Gould, Handbk. Bds. .\ustr.. Vol. I., p. 484 (186.5). 



Adult male — General colour above ashy-grey, most of t/ie fealliers on the back havinr/ dark 

 brotvn centres; rump and upper tail-coverts clear ashy-grey ; lesser wing-coverts like the back, the 

 median and greater series dark brown, tipped with white; quills brown, becoming darker on the 

 innermost secondaries which are tipped with white, the primaries externally edged with pale brown; 

 the central pair 0/ tail feathers dark brown, the remainder blackish-brown tipped rvith white more 

 broadly on the outermost feathers ; crown, of the head and nape cliestnnt : a broad line extending 

 from the nostril over the eye on to the sides of the nape trhite, bordered on either side with a 

 narrow line of black; lores blackish-broivn; ear-coverts silky-brown, blackish at the base, as are also 

 the feathers below the eye; cheeks, throat, and centre of the breast tvhite, bordered with a narrow line 

 of black, which tvidens out 011 the sides of the fore-neck: sides of the hody ashy-hriiirii, some of the 



