24 PACHTCEPHALIN.13. 



a nest built in a Forest Oak, (Casuavina suhcrosa) overgrown with Smilax australis, on whicli the 

 female was sitting on two slightly incubated eggs, and another nest built in a Needle Bush 

 (Hakea acicularis), containing two fresh eggs. On the 3rd October, in the same gully I found a 

 nest with the female sitting on a chipped egg and a newly hatched young one, another on the 

 9th October with two young, and one on the 26th October with two fresh eggs. On the 25th 

 November following I found a nest built on the frond of a tree-fern growing on the bank of a 

 creek at Ourimbah. This nest was largely composed of fine green grass stems, and was 

 constructed so far as I observed, entirely by the female, who later on very reluctantly left it 

 when I stood underneath the fern to take the eggs. In September and October 1904, this 

 species bred freely in orange and lemon trees close to the Roseville Railway Station. 



The nest and eggs figured on Plate A 9, were taken at Chatswood on the 23th September, 

 1898. The nest was built in a Lillypilly (Eugenia smithii ) growing in the bed of a creek, and 

 the male was sitting on two eggs, which were slightly incubated. Outwardly it is formed of long 

 dried plant stems with a slight admixture of spider's webs, the inside being scantily lined with 

 fine dried grasses and a few thread-like leaves of Casitariim siiheyosa. 



The eggs are usually two, sometimes three in number for a sitting, oval or elongate oval in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and more or less lustrous. They differ considerably in 

 the size, and distribution of their markings ; the ground colour usually varying from a pale creamy 

 white to creamy-buff. One of the most common types is of a creamy or faint buffy-white ground 

 colour, which is freckled, dotted or blotched with umber brown, with which are intermingled a 

 few underlying spots of faint inky-grey, the markings predominating and becoming confluent on 

 the thicker end where a well defined zone is formed; in others the markings are distributed 

 almost uniformly over the surface of the shell. A very unusual coloured set of three I took at 

 Childers in South Gippsland, from a nest built among some dead fern fronds, are of a distinct 

 reddish-buff ground colour with umber and blackish-brown markings. Another set of two from 

 Hastings, Western Port Bay, Victoria, are almost pure white, one having a cap, the other a 

 penumbral rich umber-brown band on the larger end, and entirely devoid of the usual freckles, 

 spots, or blotches. A set of two taken at Chatswood in September 1898, have numerous small 

 underlying freckles and spots of dull bluish-grey, appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell 

 which is unusually lustrous. One of the most remarkable eggs of this or any other species I 

 have seen, is in a set of two taken in company with Dr. G. Hurst, at Heathcote, New South 

 Wales, on the 29th October, 1886. The eggs are of a deep yellowish-buff ground colour, one 

 having a broad band of dark umber brown blotches around the centre of the egg; the other, two 

 distinct zones formed of dark umber brown spots, one being around the centre, the other on the 

 smaller end, the ground colour on the larger end and between the zones passing into a pale creamy- 

 white. Length (A) 0-96 x 071 inches; (6)0-95 x 07 inches. A set of two taken at Chatswood 

 on the 7th September, 1898, measure: — Length (A) 0-9 x 07 inches; (B) 0-9 x o-6g inches. 

 A set of three taken in the same locality, measure: — Length (A) 0-95 x 0-67 inches; (B) 0-95 

 X 0-68 inches; (C) 0-94 x o-68 inches. 



A fledgeling I obtained at Eastwood, while being fed by the female, is dull rufous above and 

 below ; quills blackish-grey, the primaries narrowly edged e.xternally with ashy-white, and the 

 secondaries broadly margined with dull rufous; tail dull rufous. Wing 2-2 inches. 



Young males resemble the adult female prior to assuming their distinguishing sexual livery. 

 One I obtained at Roseville on the 26th June, 1902, is in almost the same stage of plumage as 

 another procured two months later by Mr. R. Grant at Five Dock. Both specimens have the 

 longer upper and under tail-coverts tipped with rufous ; the outer series of the greater wing- 

 coverts rufous, both webs of the innermost secondaries broadly margined with rufous. In a 

 further advance towards maturity these rufous tips and margins are lost, the upper parts and 

 tail have an olive-green wash, and some of the feathers on the lower breast are yellow. 



