PACHYCEPIIALA. 35 



The undergrowth of humid mountain ranges is the favourite resort of this species, I 

 obtained specimens of it in different parts of the Strzelecki Ranges, in South Gippsland, 

 Victoria, and received its eggs during one of my visits to Childers, taken by Mr. Charles Mayo. 



Writing from Bellerive, near Hobart, Dr. L. Holden remarks: — '' Facliyccphala olivacea 

 is numerous enough in the north-west corner of Tasmania where the rainfall is considerable, but 

 I ha\e never seen it in the drier country east of the Derwent in the south. The wayfarer on 

 the muddy track hears the note of this bird ringing out from the depth of the dripping scrub he 

 is riding through. Both our Thickheads like thickly grown bush. If you want to find the nest 

 of either, you had better look where the undergrowth is thickest and most involved with long 

 grass at the bottom of the gully. I ha\e heard the Olivaceous Thickhead in such places on the 

 flanks of Mount Wellington but not, as I have said, in the drier more open country to the eastward 

 of Hobart. The note of the Olivaceous Thickhead varies between two and three syallables. It is 

 sometimes twee-c-c-c-tcliow, the last syllable loud and sharp, and sometimes tu-wce-e-tcliow, and 

 occasionally you may hear one uttering a long drawn plaintive whistle like a Cuckoo's. The 

 nest is in a bush, often a tea-tree some five feet from the ground, made of twigs, and neatly lined 

 with dry grass and rootlets. The eggs are pointed at the thick end and might be mistaken for 

 a variety of the eggs of Collyriocincla rectirostris, but they are smaller, and the nest a smaller and 

 neater structure. I have found it breeding in October and November." 



A nest in the Australian Museum taken by Mr. R. N. Atkinson, at Waratah, Mount Bischoff, 

 Tasmania, is a large and compactly built open structure irregularly formed externally of long 

 coarse twigs and strips of bark and a few dead leaves, the inside which is of a deep cup shape, 

 being neatly lined with fine dried yellowish-white grass stalks. Excepting the ends of some 

 long straggling twigs, it averages six inches and a half in external diameter by four inches and 

 three-quarters in depth, and the inner cup three inches and a quarter in diameter by two inches 

 in depth. In general appearance and size it resembles more the nest of Oreoica cristata or 

 Collyriocincla harmonica, than that of the typical nest of a Pachycephala. With this nest Mr. E. D. 

 Atkinson wrote as follows: — "The nest ol Pachycephala olivacea lam sending you, was found 

 here by my son Mr. R. N. Atkinson, on the 17th October, igoj, and contained on that day one 

 egg. On the i8th he took two eggs, and going for the nest the following day, took a third. The 

 nest was about five feet from the ground and was in a bush oi Fagiis cunniiif^hami, as you will 

 perceive. My brother the Rev. H. D. Atkinson of Evandale, Tasmania, informs me that he has 

 found nests in scrub and low bushes, each with three eggs, from 24th October, to as late as the 

 2nd December." 



The eggs are two or three in number, of a pointed ellipse or swollen oval in form, 

 tapering sharply to both ends, the shell being close grained, dull and lustreless. They vary in 

 ground colour from bufify-white to a light creamy-buff, over which is sprinkled dots, irregular 

 shaped spots, and small blotches of different shades of umber, with which are intermingled 

 underlying markings of a dull violet-grey, all predominating around the upper end where they 

 are confluent and form ill-defined zones. Others have the surface dots and spots smaller, more 

 rounded in form and of a dark brown or almost brownish-black hue, and the underlying markings 

 more numerous and larger than the outer ones and of a dark violet-grey. A set of two taken by 

 Dr. L. Holden at Macquarie Harbour, Tasmania, measure alike :— Length (A) 1-13 x 079 

 inches. A set of two measure: — Length (A) roS x 076 inches; (B) 1-09 x 079 inches. 



From Dr. Holden and the Rev. H. D. Atkinson's notes, September and the four following 

 months apparently constitute the usual breeding season of this species in Tasmania, but nests 

 with eggs were more often found in October. I received eggs taken during the same month in 

 Childers, South Gippsland, Victoria, and there are eggs in the Australian Museum collection, 

 taken in the New England District, New South Wales, during November 18S7. 



