.VESTS A.VD hCaS Oh AU ST KALIAN lUKlKS ,"5 



Australia, on tlic Cue road, frcsli eggs as early as June (1896). Tlio 

 same species was subsequently found on the Fitzroy River breeding in 

 Februaiy. 



With Mr. Hany Baraai-d I found a nest containing eggs at Coo- 

 mooboolaroo, October, 1885. Notwithstanding the birds from that 

 district have been identified by the Australian Museum autliorities as 

 P. riiheeiilus, I could find little or no difference between the bird and 

 P. temporal is. If I err, I have the comfortable reflection of knowing 

 that I have done so in very good company, for Dr. Gadow says he can 

 find no difference between the species found at Coomooboolaroo and 

 P. temporalis. 



Mr. Barnard informs mc that a family of these birds built a nest 

 and " camped " in it — that they build almost any time of the year. 

 Once lie found four fledgelings togetlier with a set of four eggs in the 

 same nest. Eggs have been taken as early in the season as August. 



The nest and eggs first described by Mr. George Masters were from 

 Port Dar\vin district. 



Writing from Clei-mont (Queensland), 2nd November, 1897, 

 Mr. Thomas R. McDougall favoiu-s mo with the following note on the 

 Babblers: — "A family of eight or nine Chatterers — or, as they are 

 often called, ' happy families '• — have been roosting in an old nest close 

 by my camp for a week or more now, and I have been taking par- 

 ticular notice of them in my spare time. They used to spend a brief 

 time in the moniing repairing the nest, and then away they would all 

 go to their feeding ground, retiuning just before sundown, when they 

 would have ten minutes or so on a tree close by and then pack them- 

 selves into the nest. This morning they are unusually industrious, 

 and are carrying great pieces of bark, waste paper, and grass and sticks, 

 every two or three minutes. I also noticed this morning that they 

 were showing a very pugnacious attitude towards a pair of Blue-faced 

 Honeyeaters that seemed deteiinined to dispossess them of their nest." 



224. — CiNCLORHAMPHUs CRURAUS, Vigors and Horsfield. — (241 & 242) 

 C. raiitiUaiis, Gould. 



BLACK-BREASTED SONG LARK. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii., pis. 74 and 75. 



Refermce. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iii., p 498. 



Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs — Gould; Birds of Australia (184S) ; also 



Handbook, vol. i., p, 396 (1865) ; Ramsay : Ibis, p. 328 (1S66) ; 



Campbell: Southern Science Record ( 1882). 



Gengrapliiral Distrihution. — Australia in general. 



A^est. — Open or cup-shaped, deep ; constructed of dry grasses ; 

 Uned inside with soft floweiing parts of gi-ass ; placed in a hollow or 

 cattle footprint in the ground, with the rim of the nest flush with the 

 surface, and usually protected by a grass tussock. Dimensions : internal 

 3 inches across by 2 inches deep. Occasionally a nest is merely a 

 hollow made in a tuft of grass. 



