276 NESTS AND EGGS OF AVSTNALIAN BIRDS. 



Ef/f/x. — Clutch, three to four ; lengthened in shape or sometimes 

 inclined to pyrifonn ; texture of shell fine; surface glossy; colour, 

 warm or pinkisli-whito, finely, occasionally indistinctly, spotted with 

 pinkish red and purple, the markings being thickest about the larger 

 end. Dimensions in inches of a pair: (1) -98 x '65, (2) -96 x -67 ; of a 

 shorter pair : (1) -93 x '68, (2) -92 x -67. (Plate 11.) 



Ohnervntinti!!. — 0. canti/Innx of Gould is synonymous with Vigors 

 and Horsficld's C. cmi-nlis. The confusion arose no doubt tlirough 

 the colovu'ation of seasonal dress and the sizes of the sexes — the Black- 

 breasted and larger bird (nearly twice the size of its mate) being the 

 male. Dr. Shai-pe says : " As the size of the abdominal patch seems to 

 me to vary in proportion to the amount of the remains of winter 

 plumage I cannot believe that C. rnnfillnns is really distinct." 



In spring and summer, from some grass open, what lover of nature 

 has not enjoyed to hear the " pitch-a-paddle, pitch-a-paddle " song of 

 this Skylark, which the bird utters when soaring upwards over the fields ! 



The bird has been recorded from every part of Australia where 

 collectors have been, but not from Tasmania. However, it is onh' a 

 visitor, its numbers being regulated by the season, to the most soutlieni 

 limits of its range, where it arrives in September or October. Tlic first 

 of these birds I heard in Rivcrina one season was on the 12th 

 September. 



In the Wimmera, season 1897 (a dry one), Mr. C. McLennan saw 

 the first Brown Song Lark 26th August. The same season 

 Dr. W. Macgilli\Tay reports from Coleraine : — " Saw last of the Black- 

 breasted Cinclnrhamphux 2nd February. They begin to go as soon as 

 yoiuig are able to flv." 



About Januai-y or Febniary the birds after breeding retire north- 

 wards or towards the gi-eat interior, where during winter some of them 

 may be found flitting from tree to tree or over the Mulga Scrub giving 

 forth the same pleasant song as they cUd over their brooding mates 

 nesting in some grassy glade or cultivated crop further south. 



In their famiUar summer haunts these bii'ds seem scarcer than they 

 were in fonner years. A keen field observer has remarked that the 

 depasturing of stock, changing the face of the country, forces the birds 

 elsewhere. 



225. — CiNCLORH.\MPHus RUFESCENS, Vigors and Horsfield. — (24.'?) 

 RUFOUS SONG LARK. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii., pi. 76. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. vii., p. 500. 



Previous DescriptiOKS of Eggs. — Gould: Birds of Australia (1848); also 



Handbook, vol. i., p. 398 (1865): North: Austn. Mus. Cat., 



p 153 (1889). 



Geofirnphirnl Dixtrihution. — Whole of Australia. 



