54 



blown, the ground colour is a beautiful bluish or greenish-grey, which usually fades to a bluish 

 or dull white after some time. Some specimens are minutely but thickly freckled all over with 

 slaty-grey and slaty-black, intermingled with much fainter subsurface markings of similar hues, 

 but more often are they found boldly blotched and spotted with slaty-black and inky-grey 

 particularly around the centre or the larger end, where in many instances the markings are 

 confluent and form a more or less well defined zone. Occasionally specimens are found with a 

 band or wreath formed of large irregular-shaped inky-grey blotches on the thicker end, the 

 remainder of the shell having a few minute freckles of the same colour, or entirely devoid of 

 markings. A set of three taken at Ashfield, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) 072 x 

 0-52 inches; (B) 072 x 0-52 inches; (C) 07 x 0-51 inches. A set of three taken at Belmore, 

 on the 4th October, 1896, measures: — Length (A) o-68 x 0-57 inches; (B) o-68 x 0-56 inches; 

 (C) 0-67 x 0-58 inches. A set taken at Roseville, on the i8th September, 1904, measures: — 

 Length (A) 0-67 x 0-5 inches : (B) o'65 x 0-5 inches; (C) 0-65 x 0-5 inches. 



The nest figured was built 

 at a height of thirty feet, on a 

 dead forked leaning branch of 

 a Rough-barked Apple-tree 

 ( Angophova intermedia) growing 

 in the playground of the 

 \\'illoughby Public School. I 

 found it on the 3rd September, 

 i8qg, by seeing the birds carry 

 nesting material to it, and 

 twelve days later, when it was 

 taken, the female was sitting 

 on two fresh eggs. This nest, 

 a typical one, is now in the 

 Group Collection of the 

 Australian Museum. 



In the neighbourhood of 

 Sydney, nidification usually 

 commences about the third week 

 in August, although I have 

 taken a nest with eggs at 

 Canterbury, as early as the 

 27th of August. The birds two 

 days afterwards removed this 

 nest piece by piece and 

 constructed it in a more secure position in an adjoining tree. As I have pointed out,"' several 

 birds may assist in the construction of a nest ; in one instance it was a male and two females. The 

 first occasion I saw this was on the loth September, 1893, at Ashfield, when three birds were 

 engaged in building a nest in an upright dead fork of a Eucalyptus close to my house, and where 

 from a window they were under daily observation. This nest was finished eight days later, for 

 from that time one of the birds commenced to sit, occasionly being relieved by another, whether 

 by two it was impossible to tell, although three birds attended to the wants of apparently three 

 young, from the number of bills visible over the sides of the nest when nearly fledged, which 

 they vacated in October. Early in September of the following year a pair of birds constructed 

 half a nest on the branch a few feet away from the old one, but eventually removed it to the next 

 * Handbk. Austr, Assoc Adv. Sci , Sydney, p. 83, i8g8. 



NEST OF OUANGEWINGHD UAIiK-FlCCKEK. 



