NESTS A.VD EGGS Of AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 175 



west as Point Cloates, where he shot one after a hurricane, and 

 Mr. Keartland subsequently reported he had noticed it in various localities 

 throughout the north-west do?;ert. 



The eggs in my collection are part of a full clutch of four t<akeu from 

 a gi'a^s-made uest, lined with wool and situated in a cotton-bush, at 

 Cooper Creek, 24tli March, 1887. Therefore it would appear- that the 

 White-backed Wren, according to the season, sometimes lays in autumn 

 as well as the usual months of September to December. 



146. — Malurl-s elegans, Gould.- — (189) 

 RED-WINGED WREN. 



Figure. — Gould ; Birds of .\ustralia, fol , vol. iii , pi. 22. 

 Reference, — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iv., p. 291. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould: Birds of Australia (1848), also 

 Handbook, vol. i. p, 325 (1865). 



Gcoijrapliica! Distrihufion. — West Australia. 



.Vc,^'^ — Dome-shaped or covered, with comparatively large side entrance 

 near the top ; constructed of grass, together with occasionally thin pieces 

 of tea-tree (Melaleuca) bark, and lined inside with feathers. Usually 

 situated low, in grass or other herbage or in a bush. 



Eggs. — Clutch, three to four ; colour, delicate flesh-white, freckled with 

 spots of reddish-brown, which are much thicker at the larger end. 

 Dimensions in inches : -G? x -5 (Gould). 



Observations. — I also enjoy pleasant recollections of this beautiful 

 western dweller. Unlike the Banded Wren, it seems to prefer the rank 

 herbage of moist forest situations. After many adventures with snakes 

 in such suggestive localities I only succeeded in finding two uests. In one 

 instance I was too late for eggs, and in the other too early. Near Hamelin 

 Hai-bour, on the 26th October, 1889, I found the first nest, so artfully 

 hidden in grass and protected by the raised portion of a fallen limb, that 

 I had to search the locality on three occasions before I discovered the nest, 

 which contained yoimg. In the other instance, on the 9th of the following 

 month, near Quindnlup, I detected birds c^inying material to construct 

 their nest in the most romantic of localities — a native garden of pink 

 boronia. A secluded gully occuiTed in the forest, through which 

 meandered a creek, partly hidden by finely-foUaged kimzea trees, starred 

 with small white flowers. These trees in turn protected the flowering 

 spikes of a boronia plant some six or eight feet high, at the base of wliich 

 the future home of the graceful Wrens was being constructed in rushes. 

 Happy birds ! 



Breeding season September to the end of the year. 



