PACHYCKPHALA. 33 



(^SLTHOUGH widely distributed, Gilbert's Thickhead is the rarest species of the genus 

 J~ \. inhabiting the southern portion of the Austrahan continent. There are specimens in 

 the Australian Museum collection obtained in Western and South Australia, and I have received 

 on loan for examination a specimen from the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, obtained 

 by the late Mr. F. Andrews on the Gawler Ranges on the 26th September, 1882, and an adult 

 male procured at Xonning by Drs. A. M. Morgan and A. Chenery on the 5th August, 1902. 



The sandy buff patch on the centre and breast of adult males is variable in size ; in some it 

 extends on to the sides of the breast and abdomen. The wing-measurement of five specimens 

 now before me varies from 3-8 to 4'i inches. The outer webs of the secondaries of three 

 examples are olive-brown, in the others dull greyish-brown. 



Relati\e to this species Dr. Morgan remarks, " Pachyccphala gilhciii seen from Xonning 

 westward to the Gawler Ranges, but nowhere common. It has a clear whistling note like that 

 of the other species of Thickheads but is readily distinguishable." 



On Kilfera Station in Western New South Wales, the late Mr. K. H. Bennett on the 3rd 

 November, 1886, took three fresh eggs from a nest of this species formed inside an old nest of 

 Pomatostomus, built in a Mulga about twelve feet from the ground. He found it ten days before 

 by observing the tail of the bird projecting from the old nest. 



A nest received from ^Ir. C. French. Junr., taken on the 6th October, by Mr. Charles 

 McLennan, on Pine Plains Station, in the Wimmera District, North-western Victoria, is an open 

 cup-shaped, thick walled structure, and differs considerably in the lining used by other 

 members of the genus. It is formed of thin strips and shreds of bark, and bark fibre intermingled 

 with dried greyish-Avhite grasses, and is lined at the bottom with white plant down. Externally 

 it measures four inches and a quarter in diameter by two inches and a half in depth, the inner 

 cup measuring two inches and a quarter in diameter by ane inch and a half in depth. This is 

 the only instance I have known of any species of Fachycephala forming a nest entirely of soft 

 materials, typically they are made of thin twigs or strips of bark and lined with dried grasses or 

 rootlets, and have a wiry consistency. Mr. McLennan informs me, however, that it is a typical 

 example of the nests of this species he has found in the Wimmera District. It contained two 

 eggs and was built in a Hop-bush (Dodoiica viscosaj, three feet from the ground. 



The eggs are usually two, sometimes three in number for a sitting, and vary from thick to 

 elongate oval, some specimens being rather sharply pointed at the smaller end, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and more or less lustrous. In ground colour they vary from pale yellowish- 

 buff and yellowish-white to dull white, which is dotted and spotted more particularly on the 

 larger end with blackish-brown, or light umber brown, intermingled with similar underlying 

 markings of inky or bluish-grey. In some specimens the markings are uniformly distributed 

 over the shell, but as a rule they are small and in the form of a band around the larger end. A 

 set of two taken by Mr. C. McLennan, on the 6th October, 1902, at Pine Plains Station, in the 

 Wimmera District, \'ictoria, measure as follows :— Length (A) 0-92 x 0-67 inches; (B) 0-95 x 

 0-68 inches. Another set taken by him in the same locality, measures; — Length (A) 0-95 x 0-65 

 inches; (B) 0-92 x 0-64 inches. A set of three taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, in Western 

 New South Wales measures: — Length (A) 0-95 x 073 inches; (B) o-gi x 071 inches; (C) 

 0-93 x 073 inches. \n egg in Dr. A. "SI. INIorgan's collection, taken at Euro Bluff, South 

 Australia, in October 1900, is a swollen oval in form and of a pale cream ground colour, sprinkled 

 over, particularly at the larger end, with irregular shaped dots of blackish and dark umber brown 

 intermingled with similar but less numerous underlying markings of faint bluish-grey. Length 

 0-92 X 072 inches. The eggs of this species more closely resemble in form those of Fachycephala 

 guUuraUs, and in colour and character of markings those of Artamus sovdidus. 



