/VESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



3JI 



Novcmbei- ; aud according to Mr. North, the latu Mr. K. II. Bennett 

 took fresh eggs 19th Mardi, 1887. 



From a note 1 lind that Mr. Tom Carter took at Minilya (W.A.), as 

 early as the 10th August, a nest of the Bell Bird eoiitainiug five eggs. 



Mr. Cha.s. Barnard (Queenslajid), has been good enough to send the 

 following field note ; " I have lately taken the nests (two) of the Bell 

 Bird (Ortoica cristata). I do not know if your attention has ever been 

 di'awn to the peculiar habit this bird ha.s of placing caterpillars in and 

 aroimd the nest. We do not often find their nests, but in those we 

 have found there have always been ca,terpillars ; but we never took 

 particular notice as to the number, &c. In a nest taken on the 14tli 

 inst. (November, 1897), there were several caterpillars, all of the same 

 species, up to an inch and a-half long, thick, coarse-haired insects, all 

 apparently dead or in a state of torpor, scattered about the nest, some 

 of them on the edge, some on the bottom. In the other nest, taken 

 21st inst.. there were thirteen catci-pillars, several dead, lying Lu the 

 bottom of the nest, and several dead ones on the edge. There were also 

 a few live ones, besides a good many di-y, shrivelled up catci-pillars, 

 which show that the birds must be constantly putting fresh ones in the 

 nest. Both these nests had nearly fresh eggs ; but we have seen 

 caterpillars in nests that were just ready for the eggs. I do not think 

 that they can be put there for food, as I hardly think a bird would 

 eat such a hair}^ insect. The catei-pillars in the last nest were all of the 

 same species except one, and that one of the same species as those in 

 the other nest." 



253. — Eops.^LTKiA AUSTHALis, Latham. — (175) 



YELLOW-BREASTED SHRIKE ROBIN. 



Refeycttce. — Cat Birds Brit. Mus., vol. viii., p. 176 



Preuious Dacyiptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia 1 1848) ; also 



Handbook, vol. i., p. 294(1865); Ramsay: Trans. Phil. See, 



N.S. Wales, with plate (1865). 



(jiiif/rdplurnl Distrihutian. — South Queensland, New isouth Wales, 

 Victoria and South Australia. 



yest. — Cup-shaped, neat and beautiful in form, constructed of fine 

 twigs, but chiefly bark, with lengthened pieces of outer bark (sometimes 

 two or three inches long) stuck on perpendicularly, outwardly, by means 

 of spiders' web. and further ornamented, especiallv about the rim, with 

 liclien ; Hned in.side with a few rootlets and pieces of dead, flat, sword- 

 like gi-ass, or with whole small dead leaves of eucalypts, &c. Usually 

 placed low in the slender fork, or on a horizontal branch of a tree in 

 scrub, b}' creek or in forest. Dimensions over all, 3i to 4 inches by 

 3 inches in depth ; e^^ cavity, 2 to 2i mchcs across by 1^ inches deep. 

 (See illustration.) 



