NESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALlAtV BIRDS. Oc) 



55. — Ptii.okhis victoria, Gould. — (3(M| 

 VICTORIA RIFLE BIRD. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol.. supp., pi. 50. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus,, vol. iii., p. 155. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Campbell; Victorian Naturalist (iSga) ; 

 Le Souef : Proc. Hoy. Soc. Victoria, vol. v., new ser., plate only 

 (1892): Le Souef: Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, vol. vii., new ser., 

 p. 22 (1895). 



Geograiihical Distri/mfioii. — North Queensland, including Barnard 

 Islands. 



Nest. — Oval in shape, open, .shallow; somewhat loosely constructed of 

 tough branching rootlets and a few broad dead leaves and tendrils of 

 climbing plants ; lined inside with a layer of broad leaves, upon which are 

 placed portions of very fine twigs. Usually situated in dense scrub. 

 Dimensions over all, 8 inches longest breadth, shortest breadth 6 or 7 

 inches by 3i inches in depth ; egg cavity, 4 inches across by H inches deep. 

 (See illustration.) 



AVy- — Clutch, two ; blunt or stout oval in shape ; te.xture 

 of shell somewhat fine ; siu-face glossy, wth a few crease-like 

 lines running lengthwise ; colour of a fleshy lint, streaked in various 

 lengths and breadths longitudinally with rich reddish-brown and purplish- 

 brown. The markings commence near the apex, wliich is bare or nearly 

 so, extend about half-way down the shell, and assume the appearance 

 of having been painted on (boldly at the top and tapering downwards) 

 with a camel-hair brush. Some of the markings are conlluent, and appear 

 as having been painted over each other. In one example, the longest 

 single mai-king measm-ed -48 inch by a breadth of 09 inch. Dimensions 

 in inches of a proper clutch: (1) 1-24 x 92, (2) 1-24 x -89. 



The type specimen of these beautiful eggs described by me in the 

 " Victorian Naturahst," 1892, figured by Mr. D. Le Souef in the Proc. 

 Roy. Soc. Vict, the same year, and now in the Australian Museum, has, 

 in addition to the above-mentioned markings, a few small spots near the 

 lower quarter, and one large blotch of rich reddish-bro^vn wliich has a 

 smudged appearance. Dimensions in inches: 1-23 x -92. 



Observations. — This, the smallest, but none the less gorgeous of the 

 Rifle Birds or Plumeless Birds of Paradise, is a dweller of the rich tropical 

 scrubs of Northern Queensland, and its habitat is intermediate between 

 the Rifle Bird of New South Wales and Queensland, and the Albert Rifle 

 Bird of Cape York, being a limited strip of country of about 250 miles, 

 extending from the Herbert River scrubs in the south into York 

 Peninsula about the Bloomfield River district in the north. 



Macgillivray, when surveying the North-east coast of AustraUa, 

 discovered the Victoria Rifle Bird on the Barnard Islands and on the 

 adjacent shores of the mainland at Rockingham Bay. On the islands he 

 found three yoimg males fighting, which he bagged vritli a single charge 

 of dust shot. 



