41 



igoo, Oiroiai cristata was a very common bird in tlie scrub, and its note was to be lieard from 

 sunrise to sunset. At Arcoona on the Sth August, the only nest was found, in which the female 

 was sitting on a cracked and dried up egg. The nest was built in an old one o[ Pomatostomus 

 supevciliosus, and the lining much resembled that of the nest of Collvrii'cinila IiannoniLa." 



In 1894 during the journey of the Horn Scientific Expedition, Mr. G. A. Keartland met 

 with it in Central Australia, and again in iSyfi in North-western Australia, while a member 

 of the Calvert E.xploring Expedition, when it was observed from Mullawa to the Fitzroy River. 

 Specimens obtained by him in North-western Australia are very much paler than examples 

 procured in the south-western portion of the continent, and the breast and abdomen are white 

 with only a slight wash of sandy-buff on the sides. Wing 4 inches. 



Writing from Point Cloates, North-western .\ustralia, Mr. Tom Carter remarks r—O/wica 

 cristata, is a common species both on the coast and inland. In the winter months numbers of 

 these birds may be heard uttering their ventriloquial notes all day long. They nest from June 

 to September. I have taken their eggs as early as the nth June, and I have seen the male bird 

 assisting in the task of incubation. When disturbed he slipped quietly off the nest, and getting 

 a few yards away commenced to call. It is usual to find hairy caterpillars in the nests of this 

 species." 



The nest is of a deep cup- 



t» -^l^ygj^H |u i«wv SB8^ JVWW//' i^^^'""^*? shape, and is irregularly formed 



^"'\ '^Hfcv^^rl "" , '.^^''i^/^'Ky ^^^*'**. externally of long thin sticks and 

 \ ^Sta^Vi^ivi^V-^S?^-*^''' 4Jfiy.M"' 'd »' l^vigs, the inner wall being 



tormed of strips of bark, and the 

 cup-like cavity is neatly lined 

 with finer strips of bark and 

 fibrous rootlets. I'sually it is 

 built in a forked branch, or 

 between thin hranchlets and the 

 trunk of a tree, sometimes on 

 the top of a hollow stump, when 

 it is formed of bark and stems of 

 fibrous roots only, at a height 

 varying from three to thirty feet 

 from the ground. In Western 

 .Australia, Gilbert found it built 

 in Grass-trees ( Xanthorrhcea 

 sp.) both in the crown among 

 the leaves, or in the fork of the 

 trunk. As will be seen by Dr. 

 Morgan's note, it also relines the 

 abandoned nest of another species. 

 The nest figured was taken by Mr. E. H. Lane on Wambangalang Station. The structure 

 proper, exclusive of the long thin straggling twigs which stand out at all angles around it, 

 measures externally five inches in diameter by six inches in depth, and the inner cup four inches 

 by two inches and a half in depth. During October and November 1882, Mr. Lane found seven 

 nests containing eggs. In each instance the nest was built between the trunk of a ring-barked 

 tree, and at the base of newly formed limbs growing from under the ring mark, the nest averaging 

 from three to four feet from the ground. 



I he eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, oval in form the shell being close-grained 

 smooth, and almost lustreless. Typically they are of a faint bluish-white ground colour, but 



NE.ST OF CRESIKI) IIKLI.III UI>. 



