340 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AVSTKALJAN BIRDS. 



the nests as long as I could, even to the day before I left Coomooboolaroo 

 (9th October), when Mr. Hany Baniard kindly ascended tlie trees and 

 secured me the prizes — a pair of eggs from each nest. Great difficulty 

 attended the taking of one nest, which was in an upright fork of a dead 

 limb. This branch had to be sawn through and lowered gradually till 

 it reached my hands below. Subsequently I made a photogi-aph of it. 

 (See illustration). These finds were reported to and duly recorded by 

 the Field Naturahsts' Club of Victoria. 



Subsequently (1889) Mr. North independently described the eggs 

 of the White-lieaded Sittella from the same locality, and was indebted, 

 as he states, to the late Mr. Geo. Barnard for the same. 



Breeding season, chiefly the months of September, October and 

 November. 



279. — Sittella alb.\ta, Ramsay. 

 PIED TREE RUNNER. 



/'(VMcf.— Gould-Sharpe: Birds of New Guinea, vol. iii., pi 28 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol viii., p. 362. 



Geof/rnph iral Ditfrihution. — North Queensland. 



Nest and Er/gs. — Undesciibed. 



Ohservatiutnt. — The Pied Tree Runner can hardly be distinguished 

 from the White-headed variety, for, as Gould mentions, the white spots 

 of the quills (instead of reddish ones as in the S. leucncejjhahi) are only 

 seen by spreading the wing. 



Mr. Waller, when skinning what he supposed to be S. hucocephala, 

 noticed the white spots on the under side of the quills, and as he did not 

 remember seeing them in that species before he drew Dr. Ramsay's 

 attention to the difference. The result was that Dr. Ramsay 



re-examined his series and found other examples which he described as 

 S. alhafa. 



280. — Sittella pii.eata, Gould. — (376) 

 BLACK-CAPPED TREE RUNNER. 



Figine. — Gould; Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv., pi. 104 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. viii , p. 362. 



Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs. - Gould: Birds of Australia (1848); also 

 Handbook, vol. i. p. 612 (1865); Lucas ; Victorian Naturalist (1884) ; 

 North: Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S. Wales, vol. ii., 2nd- ser., p. 409 (1887). 



Gengraphical Diatrihvtion. — New South Wales, Victoria, South, 



West, and North-west (?) Aiistralia, 



