3i6 



NESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



securely placed near the gi'oiind between the green shoots and the bark 

 of a beautiful-leafed eucalypt (locally called red-gum), not three feet 

 from a roadway, where men and cattle passed daily. The pair of eggs 

 in my collection was taken near the same locality, on the last day of 

 October, by some cliildren passing home from school. The birds do 

 not appear to slum human society, for I had a nest pointed out to mc 

 wliich was placed in the fork of a fallen limb near a blacksmith's forge. 



Gilbert, who fovmd the Grey-breasted Shrike Robin an abundant 

 species in South-west Austi'alia, says : — " The nest is very difEciilt to 

 detect, the situation chosen for it being the thickly-wooded gum forests 

 of the mountain districts and the mahogany (' jarrah,' a species of 

 eucalypt) forests of the lowlands. From the forks of the yoimger of 

 these trees a gi'cat portion of the bark generally hangs down in strips, 

 and in the fork the bird u.sually makes its nest of narrow strips of 

 bark bound together with cob-web, while around the outside a niunber 

 of dangling pieces are suspended, giving the. exact appearance of other 

 forks of the tree ; the inside of the nest has no lining other than a few 

 pieces of bark liiid across each other, or a single dried leaf large enough 

 to cover the bottom." Eggs of this species, in the collection of 

 Mr. J. W. Mellor, are from Mount Compass, South Australia. 



Breeding months September, October and November. 



256. — EopsALTRiA (0 PULVERULENTA, Bonapartc. 

 E. Icucura, Gould. 



WHITE-TAILED SHRIKE ROBIN. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., supp., pi. i8. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. viii., p. i8o. 



Geographical Distribution. — Northern Territory and North Queens- 

 land; also New Guinea and Aru Islands. 



Nest and Eggs. — Undescribed. 



Observations. — With I'egard to the White-tailed Shrike Robin, Gould 

 writes : " The late John Gilbert was probably the first person who shot 

 this fine species of Eopsahria, of which I have had a mutilated skin, 

 obtained by him at Port Essington, in my possession for the last twenty 

 years. The specimen alluded to is too imperfect for describing or 

 figuring ; but I am enabled to supply these desiderata from a few others 

 now before me in the finest state of preservation. Unfortunately 

 nothing is known respecting the Eopxaltria leiicura, except that it 

 inhabits the great beds of mangi-oves bordering the coasts of the northern 

 part of Australia (to which, according to Mr. Cockerell, it is confined), 

 that it is very quiet in all its actions, and rather rare in the neighboiu'- 

 hood of Somerset. 



