332 NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



273. — Climactekis leucoph^a, Latham. — (371) 

 C. pyrrliuiiuta, Gould. 



WHITE-THKOATED TREE CREEPER. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv., pi. gS. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. viii., p. 337 (C. scaitilcns). 

 Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia {1848) ; also 



Handbook, vol. i., p. 606 (1865) ; Ramsay : Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S. 



Wales, vol. vii., p. 51 (1882); North: Austn. Mus. Cat., p. 239, 



pi. 13, fig. 3 (1889). 



Geoyrapliical Distribution. — ^Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria 

 and South Austraha. 



Nest. — Cosily built within a hollow hmb or tree barrel ; composed 

 of bark (string-Like), glass and moss, and lined with finer bark and fur 

 or feathers. 



Eggs.- — Clutch, three, occasionally foiu"; roundish in form; texture 

 of shell fine ; smiaec slightly glossy ; coloiu', wliite, sparing!}' blotched 

 about the apex with reddish-brown and purplish-brown ; other 

 specimens are more finely speckled, cliiefly about the same region, with 

 rich or dark-brown, also with dull-purple. Dimensions in inches of two 

 pairs: A (1) -87 x -64, (2) ■87x-62; B (1) •84x-65, (2) -84 x -64. 

 (Plate 12.) 



Observations. — This bird is well-named Tree Creeper, for it rarely 

 takes to the ground, and is essentially a bird of the thick forests of 

 Eastern Australia, where its continuous high piping call " pee-pee-pee " 

 may always be heard. I doubt if it is ever found in the interior as 

 indicated by Dr. Ramsay. 



In the case of this Tree Creeper there can be no mistaking its 

 identity, on account of its pure white tliroat, while the centre of the 

 abdomen is also whitish in coloiu-, the dark coat being greyish-brown, 

 and the wings crossed with buff -coloured bands. Length, 5| inches; 

 wing, 3^- inches; tail, 2^ inches; bill and tarsus, | inch each. 



Whether Mr. K. Broadbent refers to tliis bird or not, he says : — 

 " There is a veiy distinct variety if not a new species of Tree Creeper 

 which frequents the scrubs, never or seldom appearing in the open, 

 and is characterised by a much darker plumage. Tliis has till now 

 shared in the specific name leucopliwa."* 



Although the Wliite-throated Tree Creeper is a fairly plentiful bird, 

 eggs are rare in collections on account of the difiiculty in finding its 

 hidden-away nest. Gould, however, had examples, and as far back as 

 1861 Mr. John Ramsay took a set of two at Macquarie Fields, New 

 South Wales. 



* Perhaps this is the slightly smaller and northern race — from Moreton Bay 

 upwards — mentioned in the Brit. Mus. Cat., having a well-pronounced pale grey 

 collar across the fore neck, all the other parts being coloured as in leucofhcca. 



