N£STS and eggs 01- AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 357 



Another nest containing two eggs was taken by Mr. R. Hislop, 

 17th October, 1895. The set in my collection w;is Uikeu in July. 



296. ACANTHOKHYNCUUS SUPERCILIOSUS, Gould. 0^40) 



WHITE-BROWED SPINE BILL. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, (ol., vol. iv., pi. 62. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. ix , p. 145. 



Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs — Gould : Birds of Australia (1848J ; also 



Handbook, vol. i., p. 554 (1865) ; Campbell: Proc. Austn. Assoc, 



vol. vii., p. 584 (1898). 



Geoyrapkical Dutribution. — South and West Australia. 



Nest. — Cuj>sliapcd, neat, compact, loiiud ; composed chiefly of 

 rootlets enveloped with strips of bark matted witii spiders' web ; 

 inside lined with the dark-red downy substance of baiiksia cones or 

 with zauiia wool, fur, iJec. ; usually placed in a bush or low tree such 

 ;is a banksia. Dimensions over all, 2| inches by 2 inches in depth ; egg 

 cavity, \\ inches by 1^ inches deep. 



Eijys. — Clutch, one to two; lengthened in form; textui'o fine; 

 surface slightly glossy ; colour, pale-bull or soft pinkish-white, darker 

 on the apex, finely spott^jd, more particularly on the apex, with 

 chestnut and dull purphsh-brown. Dimensions of single examples in 

 inches: (1) -78 x -52, (2) -75 x -53. (Plate 13.) 



Obsercatiun^.^T\\iirii. is no mistaking the fine, little western Spine 

 Bill, with its white eyebrows. Mr. Wilham White, of South Australia, 

 infoiins me he has identified this species as far eastward as Kangaroo 

 Island, where he took several nests. Therefore it is on his authority 

 that I have given South AustraUa as a habitat of the bird. 



Gould described in detail the nest, stating that the eggs are two 

 in niunber. Possibly that may be the niunber laid at the height of 

 the breeding season ; but at the beginning of the season I found one 

 only. On the 1st October, 1889, at King George's Sound, I discovered 

 two nests of the Wliite-browed Spine Bill building, and watched them 

 carefully. A single egg each was the result. Another nest I found 

 had also a single egg, shghtly incubated ; wliile a fom-th nest, found on 

 the 7th, contained one young bird. Three nests out of the four wei'e 

 situated on a small prickly-leafed variety of banksia, at a height varying 

 from five to eight feet from the groiuid. 



I often watched the birds with merry diirp chasintr- each other 

 round the trees; the noise of their wings as they flew past me made 

 quite an audible shai-p " purrt-puiTt-piuTt " soiuid. 



Breeding months probably include September to December. 



