430 APl'KNIHX. 



For an account of its habits, and the loan of one of its eggs for description, I am 

 indebted to Mr. Carter, who has kindly favoured me with the following notes: — "The Rock 

 Field-Wren (Calamanthus montancUus) was first obtained by Mr. A. \V. Milligan in the Stirling 

 Range, in South-western Australia. He states he only observed it on gravelly or roclcy ground, 

 hence the name, which appears to me to be somewhat inappropriate, as personally I have never 

 seen the birds except on sand plain country, where there is enough undergrowth and scrub 

 to afford it shelter. I have noted it to be numerous on such country between the locality of 

 Broome Hill and the Stirling Range. In March, igio, I observed many examples on the open 

 sand plain that extends for about forty miles, close to the foot of those ranges on the north side. 

 On the 28th August, 1908, I found a nest on a scrubby sand plain east of Broome Hill. A bird 

 darted out from almost below my feet, on an open piece of ground surrounded by scrub. I got 

 down on my knees, and before long saw the aperture of the nest, which was le\el with the ground 

 surface. It was somewhat bulky and loosely made of coarse dry grass stalks, intermingled with 

 some dry leaves and flower heads. It was well lined with feathers, among which were sundry 

 blue, green and red ones of Platyccrcus ictaviis and Bnniaidins zoimriiis. The nest was domed, 

 and the top exactly resembled the nests of a small ant, and was made of short lengths of 

 dry grass. The eggs were three in number, of a buffish-salmon tint, and a clouded zone 

 of a darker colour at the large end. They much resembled eggs of Calamanthus fiiligiitosus. 

 The nest was about four inches in diameter, and built into a sliglit hollow in the ground. The 

 entrance was about one and a half inches in width by one inch in height. After finding it I 

 concealed myself in some scrub a few yards distant, and the hen bird returned in about twenty 

 minutes; I shot it for identification. On the 2Sth August, 1910, I procured a nest of this 

 species, built in a similar position. It contained two eggs and one of Cacoiiiantis flabdUformis. 

 Many fledged young can be seen on the sand plains from the second week in September. On 

 the 25th September, 1910, I caught three fledged young ones near the Pallinup River. 

 Calanianthiis inonfaiitlliis has the same habits as C. caiiipc'stn's, and the song is a melodious one, 

 almost exactly the same as of that species, and also uttered from the top twigs of a bush, into 

 which the bird drops and disappears to the ground on the approach of any danger. After being 

 once disturbed they are not easily flushed, but prefer to run at great speed under shelter of the 

 scrub. When they do take wing they make a distinct whirr as they rise from the ground." 



The egg referred to above is oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustrous, 

 of a very pale chocolate-red ground colour, freckled with a darker shade of the same, and 

 which predominate and become of a deeper hue on the thick-er end, where the markings 

 are confluent and form there a fairly well-defined cap. Length o-Si x 0-63 inches. Two 

 sets in Mr. Thos. P. Austin's collection, taken respectively by Mr. Thos. Burns at Warrunup, 

 on the i6th September, 1912, and at Peak Donnelly on the 2nd October, 1912, both in the 

 Stirling Range, Western Australia, measure as follows: — Length i (A) o-8 x o-6i inches; (B) 

 o-8i X 0-63 inches; (C) o-8i x o-6i inches. 2 (A) 0-82 x o-6 inches; (B) 0-82 x 0-62 inches ; 

 (C) 0-84 X o'62 inches. 



The young female closely resembles the adult in plumage, and may principally be distin- 

 tinguished by the pronounced ochreous-buff wash to the apical portion of the feathers of the 

 lower back ; upper and under tail-coverts ochreous-buff, the latter slightly paler. Total length 

 3-9 inches, wing 2, tail i-i. 



Pachycephala lanoides. 



SHRIKE-LIKE TUICK-HEAD. 



Pacliycqihala lanoides, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1839, p. 142; id., Bds. Austr., tol. Vol. II., pi. 

 69 (1848); id., Haudbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 214 (1865). 



