248 



NBSTS AXD £GGS Oh AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



zone round the apex. Dimensions in inches of a proper clutch : 



(1) -IQx-M, (2) •75X-55, (3) ■75x-54; of a pair: (1) -TSx-SS, 



(2) -71 X -55. (Plate 10.) 



Observations.- — The modest-coloxu-ed Lai'ge-billed Scrub Wren is a 

 dweller of the rich humid eastern sci-ubs, enjojdng nearly the same 

 range of habitat as its YoUow-tluoated congener (S. citreogularis), 

 but the bird is somewhat shy in disjjosition. 



Mr. Han-y Barnard found the Large-billed Scrub Wren at Cape 

 York, Queensland, season 1896-7, while Mr. A. C. Smart kindly lent 

 me a skin of this bird which he shot from a small family at Loch, South 

 Gippsland, October, 1897. No doubt these two locahties are the 

 respective hmits north and south of the chstribution of this species. 



The nests of both the Scmb Wrens, S. citreogularis and S. magni- 

 rostris, resemble each other in their mossy construction, but of com'se 

 the eggs of the Lai-ge-billed Wren, being about half the size, are easily 

 separated. 



Gould procured several nests, that were out of reach, by shooting 

 and severing the branch just above the neck of the nest, which so 

 perfectly resembled tufts of hving moss attached to many of the ex- 

 tremities of the branches of trees, that it was almost impossible to 

 distinguish one from the other. Gould has raised the question whether 

 the bird piuposely builds its nest in imitation of the beautiful pendulous 

 masses of moss, or whether by bird arcliitecture it converts one of them 

 into a receptacle for its eggs. Judging by the many nests I had the 

 opportunity of examining in the Big Scrub of New South Wales, 

 I should say the bird certainly gathers the mosses, and often builds in 

 a site where no moss grows. 



I said the nests of the Lai'ge-billed and Yellow-throated Scrub 

 Wrens resembled each other in construction and situation, but I am 

 not so siure that the smaller bu-d (the Large-billed) does not, as is said 

 in mining parlance, occasionally " jump " the nest of its larger cousin 

 or one of its own species. Tliis I know, that the Large-billed bird 

 sometimes " jumps " the nests of the tiny Flyeaters (Geryyone). 



Many times my companion and I in the Big Scrub found the Scrub 

 Wren had enlarged upon a Gerygonc's home and deposited her own 

 clutch therein. Once we had evidence of a complete " double slniffle," 

 for a nest we found contained no less than three clutches of three eggs 

 each, one of the Flyeater's slightly addled, and two different sets of 

 Scrub Wrens'. More recently Mr. H. R. Elvery found a Scrub Wren's 

 nest (which of the two species is not mentioned), but at all events, it 

 contained two clutches, three eggs each, of the Large-billed and a pair 

 of eggs of the Yellow-throated. 



In the nests of the Large-billed Scrub Wren, on two occasions, 

 I took the single egg of what I believed to be the Fan-tailed Cuckoo 

 (G. flaheUifurmis), and once the Bronze Cuckoo's (G. plngosusj. 



Mr. Lau, between the years 1865-88 has obsci-ved many of the 

 nests of both the Yellow-throated and Large-billed Sciiib Wrens in 

 Cunningham's Gap, Bunya Moimtaius, and other localities in South 

 Queensland, and states that clutches of eggs vary from two to foiu- 



