NLSTS A\D huGS Of AUS/ A'A/./AN BIKDS. 



265 



Oliservdtiiiiix. — TliL- cautious llyhuola or Hufous-ruinpetl Ovound 

 VVruu, as far as wo arc at prusoiit aware, lias only been found in the 

 drier ti'acts of Victoria and South AustraUa. 



I believe the late Mr. R. H. Nancarrow was the first to discover 

 this rare nest. Wiiting to the Field Natiu-alists' Club of Victoria, 

 March, 1888, he stated: — -"About twenty years ago I used to do a 

 good deal of nest-hunting in the Whipstick, an isolated tra<.'t of 

 Malice scrub, commencing near the municipal boundary of Eaglcliawk 

 (Victoria), and extending in a northerly direction for more than twenty 

 miles, by a breadth, in some parts, of live or six miles. In and around 

 the sci-ub I met with several species of birds, respecting the nidificatiou 

 of which Gould's recently-published handbook furnished little or no 

 information. To search for their nests was, therefore, a very 

 pleasurable task. 



" Of the Hylacohi I obtained uiilv one nest containing eggs, and 

 I scut the nest and an egg to the National Museum, and there they 

 ai'o still, no doubt, stowed away somewhere along with hundreds of 

 other valuable things that cannot be displayed for want of space." 



I have recently received from Mr. H. E. Hill a bird ^from the 

 Bendigo district which is apparently H. pyrrlioyyij'ui, and wliich would 

 appear to throw doubt on the identification of Mr. Nancarrow's species. 

 Both birds possess the chestnut-coloured rump or upper tail coverts, 

 and more than one naturalist has confounded the birds. The //. cuutu 

 is slightly the smaller bird, having a brighter (rufous-brown) colouiing 

 on the rump. I have myself watched these birds in the Malice. They 

 hop about in pairs over the gr-ound and through the under scrub like 

 Maluri, the rich, red mmp being very conspicuous. The only notes 

 I heard uttered were feeble and hissing. Probably the birds have some 

 song a« well. 



The eggs I have described were a clutch taken on Kangaroo Island, 

 14th October, 1895, by Mr. W. White, of Adelaide. 



217. — PsoPHoDES CREPITANS, Latham. — (182) 



COACH WHIP BIRD. 



Figure. — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol, vol iti, pi 15. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit Mus , vol. vii , p. 350 



Prei'ioiis Descriptions 0/ Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia, Handbook, 

 vol. i., p, 314 (1865) , North : Austn, Mus. Cat., p. 73, pi. S, 

 fig. 7 (1889); Le Soucf : Proc. tioy. Soc, Vict., vol. vii., new 

 ser., p. 21 (1895). 



Geographical Distribution.— Queensland, New South Wales, and 

 Victoria. 



Ne.'it. — Open, somewhat loosely constructed of twigs, apparently 

 broken off by the birds ; lined inside with dark, iron-coloured, wire-like 

 rootlets, sometimes with fine nish-likc grass, and usually situated about 



