2fi6 NESTS AXD hGGS 01- AUSTKALIAN BIRDS. 



three feet from the ground in thick sci-ub or undergrowth. Dimensions 

 over all, 6 to 8 inches by 3 to 4 inches in depth ; egg cavity, 3 inches 

 across by 2 inches deep. 



Eggs. — Clutch, two, three rarely ; stout oval in shape ; texture of 

 shell fine ; surface shghtly glossy ; colour, light bluish or greenish-white, 

 moderately blotched and marked with sepia and light-giey. Some of 

 the marking.s are curious, taking the form of ancient hieroglyphics. 

 Dimensions of a proper clutch: (1) 109 x 79, (2) 1-07 x -78; another 

 clutch which has one egg unusually round and entirely devoid of 

 markings: (1) 1-07 x -77. (2) 1-02 x -81. (Plate 11.) 



A pail- taken m Northern Queensland has a somewhat hghter shade 

 of bluish-white with pronounced roundish, black blotches and grey 

 markings, the hieroglyphic-like markings being absent: (1) Til x -76. 

 (2) 1-1 X -77. 



Ohaervatiiinx.- — The crack of the Coa«h-whip Bird may be heard in 

 almost every scnib or tangled undeigiowth through the length of 

 Eastern Australia. The total length of the bird is about 10 inches, 

 including a tail about half that length, which ),s partly elevated and 

 expanded when the bird is animated. The general colour is dark oUve- 

 grcen, almost approaclring black, with a conspicuous large patch of 

 white on each side of the neck ; bill black, with eyes and feet reddish- 

 brown. There are some loose dark feathers on the head wliich. when 

 raised, give the wearer a sprightly appearance. The birds are tolerably 

 plentiful in Gippsland. Judging by the number of calls heard in all 

 parts of the Big Scnib, in the Richmond River district (New South 

 Wales), I should say nowhere are the Coach-whiiJS more plentiful, 

 while I heard a few cracks in that romantic locality, Dalrymple's Gap, 

 near Cardwell. Still further north, in the Bloomfield River district, 

 in the thick sciiib well up in the mountains, Mr. Dudley Le Souef on two 

 or three occasions heard the call of the Coach-whip Bird, but he 

 thought the note, although unmistakeable, soimded slightly different 

 to that produced by the Victorian bird. 



Mr. K. Broadbent waa the first collector to draw attention to the 

 two races of this bird ; the northern variety, wluch he found common 

 in the mountain sci-iibs of the Herbert River, being always much smaller 

 than those occuning fui-ther south — for instance, even in the scrubs 

 near Brisbane.* 



One season (October, 1881) I was encamped with a companion in 

 a snug nook on the north shore of Lake King, Gippsland, and discovered 

 in a thicket the nest of a Coach-whip Bird building. On my second 

 visit it contained two beautiful eggs. To prove if they were the full 

 clutch I left them for a day or two ; retiu'ning again, my vexation can 

 be imagined when I found the rare eggs gone. I was convinced that no 



' Mr A. J. North has since named the smaller race P. crepitans, subsp 

 lateraln. Reference Rec. Austn. Mus., vol. iii., p. 13 (1897). Several skins in 

 the British Museum, collected at Cape York, by Messrs. Cockerell and Thorpe, 

 are pronounced by Dr Sharpe to be P. crepitans. 



