4 -20 



APPENDIX 



about two feet from the fjround, CQntainiii<,' three sli,L;litly incubated et,'f,'s. Next day I visited a 

 similar chimp of bush, where I had noted a pair of birds a couple of weeks previously, and 

 within ten minutes had dropped across a nest in an almost identical position ; this nest was 

 apparently just ready for eggs, and on returning in four days time I was disgusted to find two 

 broken eggs under the nest, evidently the work of a lizard. However, in about a fortnight's 

 time I had the satisfaction of hnding the nest of the same pair of birds, in a very similar position, 

 not a hundred yards away from the previous nesting-place. In the meantime I had visited the 

 scene of the original find, and again obtained a set of three eggs in a similar bush, about twenty 

 yards from the first one ; this was the last I saw of this pair of liirds. The scene of the second 



find was a small thicket, extending 

 some fifty chains by twenty chains, 

 about four miles out of Kalgoorlie. I 

 y'^>H|^*!,'l "' , T " ,,' ' \'^'T-i C^S visited the spot regularly aliout e\ery 



JSR/te'-A » '■ , ' 'I'-'s^^Si fortnii/ht, with the results shewn. The 



Bl|i^ .>";^vS • • ,% ^ ^^Ma^S skin sent was from here, and apparently 



r*^ww."'"i'>^^ ''-i'^'' *" IrV ^\ "^v^^^Sh o"s of ''i6 third pair. There were 



three pairs ot birds in this thicket, but 

 I could not locate the third nest ; I 

 doubt if the birds built. In every 

 instance the nests were left for a day 

 or two after the two eggs were laid, so 

 that the sets are complete. A similar 

 nest, taken eighty miles east of Laver- 

 ton, early in November, 1905, contained 

 one addled egg and a small young bird; 

 the egg was very similar to those of 

 the set of three. The birds are usually 

 found in dense bush thickets, rarely in 

 the open. The nest is the usual bulky 

 grass structure, with very little roof. 

 The entrance is near the top, and is 

 large, the eggs l)eing plainly visil)Ie 

 from outside; no lining beyond fine 

 grasses is used in the nest. The lower 

 part of the structure is strongly made, 

 but the upper part is very loosely put 

 together. The nest is usually placed 

 in the centre of a low thick bush, and 

 varies from one foot to two feet and a half from the ground." 



NEST AND ECif;S OF TllK LARGK-TAI LED OHASS-WKEX. 



Of the nine nests found, seven contained sets of two eggs in each, some of them being 

 slightly incubated; the remaining two nests (sets of three eggs in each), one slightly incubated, 

 the other fresh. 



The eggs vary from rounded-oval to somewhat lengthened-oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and lustrous. Typically they are white, or of a very faint reddish-white 

 ground colour, over which are sprinkled dots and small irregular-shaped spots and a few blotches 

 of rich red or purplish-red, and having similar, but fewer, underlying markings of lilac-grey, all 

 of them being more thickly disposed towards the larger end, where they are confluent, and 

 assume the form of an irregular zone. A set of three eggs taken on the 29th August, 1909, 

 measure: — Length (A) 0-78 x 0-63 inches; (B) 079 x 0-64 inches; (C) 07S x 0-63 inches. 



