lS8 jVESTS A.VD hOGS OF AUSTKALIAN BIRDS. 



Mr. R. S. Sugars, my son, aud myself, cliiefly for the pm-pose of photo- 

 graphing, //( xitu, some of the beautifvil homes. We found: — 



30th July. — (1) A nest I had visited two seasons previously contained 

 two eggs half incubated. (2) Nest with fuUy-fledgcd young. (3) Nest 

 with two eggs, fresh. (4) Nest with two eggs, half incubated. (5) Nest 

 with three eggs, fresh. (6) Two nests building. Fortnight afterwards 

 (13th August) contained each three eggs. One of these nests made a 

 most successful photograph. 



To show how closely in some instances the various families of Thrushes 

 live to each other, it may be stated that three of the above nests were 

 not more than forty or fifty yards apart, and were situated at points so 

 as to form a triangle in the scrub. 



I give Mr. Lau's interestuig notes of this bird near its northern limit 

 in the sub-tropical scrub of South Queensland, which may be taken as 

 referring to Q. heinii : — 



" Geocichla lunulata is an inhabitant of the gloomy cedar scrub along 

 the sea coast, resorting near water and always hopping on the ground 

 seeking among the moist debris for its food. Its colour resembles the 

 Eui'opean Song Thrush. The nest is not imlike that of the (home) 

 Black Bird, and is situated in the first and thick fork of a tree richly 

 bedecked with moss, and tlie outside covering being formed of the same 

 material. The nest is not so easily detected, and only the bird flying from 

 it betrays the convenient site. The lining consists of rootlets and dark 

 fibre, abixndantly to be fotmd in such locaMties. The eggs also resemble 

 those of the Black Bird. They ntunber two or three. — Bunya 

 Mountains, December, 1856." 



An egg in Mr. D. Le Souef's collection, collected by Mr. Lau, in 

 South Queensland, is inclined to oval ; texture fine ; sui-face glossy ; 

 colour, pale bluish-white, finely and faintly spotted, thickest on the apex, 

 with chestnut or rufous and dull purplish-bro^vn. It is smaller and not 

 so much marked as those of the southern birds. Dimensions: ri2 x -79 

 inches. I venture to say tliis egg is probably that of (4. hrinii. 



Mr. W. White, of South Australia, sends me a note of having taken 

 a nest of the Ground Thrvish on Mount Lofty, which is probably the 

 extreme western limit of the bird's range. I looked in vain for a Ground 

 Thrush in the great timber tracts of Western Australia. 



156. — Geocichla MACRORHyNCHA, Gould. 

 LARGE-BILLED GROUND THRUSH. 



Rcfcvence — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. v., p. 156. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Campbell : Nests and Eggs Aiistn. Birds 

 fMatiual) p. 28 (1883) ; Ramsay : Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S, 

 Wales, vol. i., 2nd ser.. p. 1147 (1886): North: Austn. Mus. 

 Cat., pi, II, fig. I (1889). 



Geugrujjhical Dhtrihution. — Tasmania and King Island, and Kent and 

 Furneaux Groups, in Bass Strait. 



