41b APPENDIX. 



I'roni the JJIoomfield Kiver, North-eastern Queensland, Mr. Robert Hislop wrote: — " Only 

 two sets of egss of Swainson's Cuclcoo-Shrike were obtained here, and they were both taken by 

 the blacks in She Oak trees, right on the sea-beach. A pair did build in a Beefwood tree close 

 to the house at Wyalla, but some Helnieted Friar-birds pulled down the nest before it was laid 

 in. Tlie nest was just like that of the White-bellied Cuckoo-Shrike, and was about fifteen feet 

 Irom the ground." 



Mr. H. Elgner wrote me as follows under date 21st February, 1905, from Kuranda, near 

 Cairns, North-eastern Queensland : — " In this district I think Graiualns lincatns usually lays one 

 egg for a sitting, rarely two. In the breeding season of 1903 a friend of mine here found three 

 nests of this species, each of which contained a single young bird, and this season I found a 

 nest with a single fresh egg, on which the bird was sitting. 1 left it for another three days, but 

 no other egg was laid. The nest was built in a fork of a thin branch of a She Oak, about forty 

 feet from the ground." 



Mr. K. Grant informed me that Mr. E. J. Cairn and himself, in the Bellenden Ker Range, 

 North-eastern Queensland, at the latter end of 1S88, found Graiicalns Uiieatits in many localities, 

 but more particularly at Boar Pocket, about thirty miles from Cairns, and alwaysclose to scrub, 

 giving preference to a species of Eucalyptus with a yellowish-white blossom, and were often 

 seen feeding in company with the Yellow-bellied Fig-bird ( SpJu-cotJu'i-cs flarivcntris ). 



From Alstonville, Richmond River, New South Wales, Mr. lilvery sent the following 

 notes: — " I first found the nest oi GrauLalns sh'ainsouii near Alstonville, Richmond River, on the 

 4th December, 1905. It was built in the horizontal fork of a tree, at a height of thirty-nine feet 

 from the ground, and contained two eggs on which the bird was sitting. On the 12th January, 



1906, I found a second nest under rather remarkable circumstances. I was standing close to 

 the trunk of a tree, and looking right to the top observed what looked like the bill of a bird 

 between the two limbs forming the forlc, nothing else being visible to indicate a nest. This was 

 so well concealed that nothing could be seen from any other standpoint than close to the trunk, 

 and was built tifty-five feet from the ground. I returned to the spot early one morning, but the 

 nest had been pulled to pieces by the birds. I afterwards noticed that this always happened 

 after the removal of eggs from a nest. However, it turned out fortunately for me, as the birds 

 built in the fork the next season, from which I took a set of eggs on the nth December. On 

 being robbed the birds resorted to the tree from which I first took the eggs of this species, my 

 fourth set being taken on 22nd December. I afterwards took two sets of an entirely different 

 type, about a mile distant from this nesting site, on the 25th December, 1906, and 5th January, 



1907, and in later seasons I found two other nests containing eggs. In endeavouring to scoop a 

 set on the 20th November, 1909, one egg was unfortunately broken. With this exception all 

 my sets were talcen during the months of December and January. In 1908 I found a nest 

 containing one young bird, and two nests in course of construction, which were deserted by the 

 birds." 



The eggs are usually two in number for a sitting, oval or elongate-oval in form, some 

 specimens being rather pointed at the smaller end, the shell being close-grained, smooth and 

 lustreless, and vary much in colour and the distribution of their markings. Some specimens 

 are of a pale bluish-grey ground colour, with the markings restricted almost entirely to a well- 

 defined zone of varying shades of slaty-grey and wood-brown irregular-shaped spots and small 

 blotches around the thicker end, with which are intermingled similar underlying markings of 

 dull bluish-grey. Another type, which resembles very much the eggs of Edoliisomi tcmiirostyc, 

 is nearly a true ellipse in form, and of a pale greenish-grey ground colour, which is evenly dotted, 

 spotted and sparingly blotched uniformly over the surface of the shell with different shades of 

 wood-brown, olive-brown and slaty-grey, the latter colour appearing as if beneath the surface of 

 the shell. Others are of a pale olive-grey ground colour, sprinkled all over with irregular-shaped 



