POMATOSTOMUS. 365 



feathers having indistinct dull rnfous margins ; binder tail-coverts dark ashy-brown, largely tipped 

 with white; bill blackish; imder surface of loiver mandible horn colour ; legs atcd feet black. Total 

 length 8;5 inches, wing S'J^O, tail 3-6, bill 1, tarsus 1'15. 



Adult female — Sitnilar in plumage to the male. 



DistribtUion. — New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 



^T^IIE range of this species extends throughout the eastern portions of South Australia, 

 -L north-western \'ictoria, and the greater portion of western New South Wales. In 

 June, 1897, Mr. Robt. Grant obtained some very fine examples while collecting on behalf 

 of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, on Buckiinguy Station, in western New South 

 Wales. Although resembling the other species in habits, Mr. Grant informs me that they 

 are remarkably active on the ground, and difficult to procure, running with great rapidity, 

 and as a rule, generally managing to get a bush, or other object, between themselves and any 

 one following them. 



From western New South Wales, the late Mr. K. H. iJennett, who presented specimens 

 of these birds to the Trustees of the Australian Museum, wrote as follows: — " Pomatostonms 

 nificcps is plentifully distributed over the whole of the le\el timbered country to the north of 

 Ivanhoe. It is met with in flocks of from six or eight to twenty individuals, and in habits 

 and mode of nidification much resembles the other members of the genus; it is, however, far 

 less garrulous and more shy in disposition. I am inclined to think that more than one bird 

 lays in the same nest, for I have seen no less than five birds busily engaged in the construction 

 of one at the same time, and have found as many as eight eggs in one nest." 



Mr. James Ramsay found this species breeding at Tyndarie, in September, 1876, and two 

 nests examined each contained two eggs for a sitting. 



The nest is a large dome-shaped structure, with a spout-like entrance, formed externally of 

 long thin twigs, and lined inside with dried grasses, cow-dung, or wool. One taken in western 

 New South Wales, averages thirteen and a half inches in height by eight inches and a half in 

 breadth, and across the entrance two inches. It was built in the topmost branches of a pine, at 

 a height of twenty feet from the ground. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me: — '' Fomatostomiis vnficeps is precisely similar to the rest of 

 the genus in its general habits, with the exception that it passes most of its time on the ground. 

 It is extremely active, and whilst hopping about keeps up a constant chatter. It is frequently 

 seen in company with F. temporalis, but prefers thick scrub and rocky gullies to the open forest. 

 Along the banks of the deep creeks at Melton, Victoria, they are very common, and as evidence 

 that they are early breeders, I caught a young bird, scarcely able to fly, on 7th August, 1898. 

 I have had specimens sent from Murtoa." 



The eggs are usually four, sometimes five in number for a sitting, oval, elongate-oval, or 

 swollen-oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and lustrous. They vary in ground 

 colour from light brown to purplish and umber-brown, and from faint ashy-green to olive-grey, 

 some being marked or veined with hair-lines and blurred streaks of blackish-brown, others are 

 indistinctly mottled with a darker shade of the ground colour, particularly on the larger end, 

 and having here and there a streak or hair-line of dusky or blackish-brown. One specimen, 

 which is represented on Plate B Y\\., figure 15, is distinctly spotted with dark brown on the 

 larger end, in addition to having the common linear markings. A set of three, taken in South 

 Australia, in September, 1882, measures: — Length (A) 0-99x07 inches; (B) 0-98x0.72 inches; 



(C) 0-98 X 0-72 inches. A set of four, taken in the Mossgiel District, New South Wales, in 

 August, 1885, measures: — (A) 0-95 x 0-73 inches; (B) 0-95 x 0-75 inches; (C) o-gg x 0-72 inches; 



(D) 0-96 X 0-7 inches. Like all the species of this genus, two or more birds sometimes lay in 

 the same nest. 



