iXES'iS AXV EGGS OF MSTKAUAN BIROS. 505 



415. — Atrichia rufescenp. Itamsay. 

 RUFOUS SCRUB BIRD. 



/■'«,?««.— Clould : Birds (,f Australia, fol., supp., pi. 26. 

 Reference.— C&\.. Birds Bnt. Mus., vol. xiii., p. 660. 

 Previous Vticn^twn of Eggs. — Campbell : Victorian Naturalist, vol. 

 XV., p. 115 {1898). 



Geuyrapliical Disfrihuiion. — Nev? South Wales (Richmond and 

 Clarence districts). 



Neat. — Dome-shaped, witli side entrance ; constructed of dead leaves, 

 ferns, twigs, &c. ; Uned inside with a curious whitisli, cardboard-like 

 material, and situated in a cliuup of grass about six inches from the 

 ground. Dimensions, length 9 inches, breadth 6 inches, entrance 2A 

 inches across. 



Effff.-). — Clutch, two; short or round-oval in form; textiu-e of shell 

 fine ; smiace glossy ; colour, warm or pinkish- white, with a patch of 

 confluent markings on the apex of pinkish-red or reddish-brown and 

 purplish-brown, also spots of the same coloiu's scattered sparingly 

 over the rest of the surface. Dimensions in inches : (1) '92 x •72, 

 (2) -87 X -7. (Plate 16.) 



Olisfrmfiiiii.-:. — Dr. E. P. Ranisay took his orieinal descriijtion of 

 the anomalous Rufous Scrub Bird from one of two examples obtained 

 in the Richmond River chstrici by Mr. James F. Wilcox and Mr. J 

 Macgillivray, June, 1865. 



Dr. Ramsay describes the habitat of this remarkable bird : - - 

 " During a visit to Tarrango Creek, on the North Richmond River," he 

 writes, " I obtained more than a dozen, but, to my surprise and dis- 

 appointment, did not find a female among them. Only on one occasion 

 did I meet with more than a single bird in the same place. They are 

 always among the logs and fallen trees overgrowm with weeds, vines, 

 nettles, &c., and are the most tiresome birds to prociu'e imaginable. 

 As to their ventriloquial powers, tlit!/ miisf he heard In be helieveil. 

 They will mock a Spine Tail's (Orthnnyr ) chirp so well, that more than 

 once I have turned roiuid in expectation of seeing that species on the 

 log behind me ; and upon one occasion the note of Ptirlnirejilidhi 

 (luttunili" sounded so close above me that I went my way, believing 

 I had mistaken a Thickhead for an Atrichia, and immediately after 

 heard the latter uttering its usual chirping note, which closely 

 resembles that of Climaeteris leucophoea (White-throated Tree Creeper), 

 and may be imitated by whistling the words ' chip ! chip ! chip ! 

 several times in succession ; it also indulges in a kind of scolding hiss, 

 like that of the (Uxficnhi. It is impossible to say what its own note 

 really is. I have frequently stood on a log waiting for it to show itself 

 from among the tangled mass of vines and weeds at my feet, when, all 

 of a sudden, it would begin to squeak and imitate first one bird and then 



