42 CEKTHIID.E. 



they vary from almost pure white, to in rare instances, a deep bluish-white, and have rounded 

 black dots, and spots, or large irregular-shaped blotches intermingled with others of a bluish or 

 inky-black hue. In some specimens the markings are small and evenly distributed over the 

 shell, in others they are larger but less numerous, forming confluent patches in places, in others 

 they predominate on the thicker end, but seldom assume the form of a zone. Of the latter 

 type is a set now before me, having an interwoven wreath on the larger end formed of ill-shaped 

 black figures, crescents, and short hair lines, the remainder of the shell being entirely devoid of 

 markings. .\ set of three taken by j\Ir. Edward Lord Ramsay, on the 28th September, 1887, 

 at Louth, New South Wales, measures : — Length (A) 1-03 x 0-79 inches; (B) 1-07 x o-8 inches; 

 (C) o'g7 X 0'77 inches. A set of three taken by Mr. E. H. Lane on Wambangalang Station, 

 near Dubbo, in October, 1892, measure: — Length (A) 1-12 x o'83 inches; (B) i-i x o'8 inches; 

 (C) i'i2 x 0-82 inches. 



Mr. C. G. Gibson informs me that in 1905, he found nests being built in the Erliston 

 District, Western Australia, on the 12th August; two others, each with three young ones, on 

 the 30th August and 2nd September; and on the gth September, one with two considerably 

 incubated eggs. One nest was built in the fork of a sandalwood tree, the others in the tops of 

 hollow stumps. 



Young birds resemble the adult female, but have the feathers on the fore neck distinctly 

 streaked with white, and the upper tail-coverts sandy-buff. Immature males have an admixture 

 of.brownish-grey feathers in the gorget-shaped marking on the lower throat and breast, and 

 which is not so dark or well defined as in the adult male. 



Erom September to December constitutes the usual breeding season in New South \\'ales 

 and (Queensland, but the late Mr. K. H. Bennett took a set of three eggs at Ivanhoe in Western 

 New South Wales, on the lyth March, 1887. In Central Australia, Mr. C. Ernest Cowle 

 took, after recent rains, eggs in ^larch and April, and in North-western Australia ^Ir. T. Carter 

 noted nests with eggs from June to September. 



Family CERTHIID^. 

 Climacteris picumnus. 



BROWN TREE-CREEPEK. 

 Cliniac/eris picumnus, (TeDiiii.), Vig. and Horsf,, Trans. Linn. .Soc, \^ol. XV., p. 295 (18l'6); Temm., 



PI. Col. -281, (ig. 1 ; Sliarpe, Hand-1. Ms., Vol. IV., p. ;3.57 (1903) 

 Climacteris scandens, (nee Temm.) Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. IV., pi. 9.'5 (1848); id., Handbk. 



Bds. Austr, Vol. I., p. 598 (1865). 

 Climacteris Ifucop/ma, Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. .Mas., \'ol. VIII., p. 336 (1883). 



Adult male — General coluwr above fartli-broicn, sHy/il/y richer in colour on the rump aud 

 upper tail-coverts; upper iving-coverts like the back, some of the onU-r greater cow.rts ivitli darker brown 

 centres; quills bro/rn, blackish-broum at the base, all but the two outermost primaries and the t/co 

 innermost secondaries crossed in the centre with a broad band of buff, the third, fourth and fifth 

 primary having this band on the inner ueb otdy, n-Iiich is succeeded by another of blackish-brown ; 

 tail feathers bro/m crossed with a sublerminal band of blackish-broirn, narrou-er towards the central 

 pair, where it is reduced to a large oval spot of dull blackish-brown, the tips of the inner webs slightly 

 paler; forehead, crown of the head, nape, and hind-neck dull greyish-broirn, paler at the sides; lores 



