NBOSITTA. 55 



tree, where the nest was completed and a bird sitting by the 15th September. At Roseville, 

 only once have I seen three birds assisting in the construction of a nest, and that was on the 

 28th October, i8g8. This nest was fully sixty feet from the ground, and the same structure or 

 nesting-site was occupied in September of the following year. On the ist September, 1896, at 

 Ashfield, I found two nests nearly completed, built in trees close to main streets, and on the 

 2ist September found two more with the birds sitting, and several nests were taken with full 

 sets of eggs during tiiat month at Canterbury. A nest found at Roseville I had my attention 

 attracted to it by the sitting bird uttering a short "chip, chip," and which it continued for some 

 time until relieved by another bird. If robbed of their eggs they freijuently construct a nest in 

 a tree near at hand. I have a set of three taken at Roseville, on the iSth September, 1904, 

 belonging to a pair of birds whose previous nest in a tree twenty yards away was robbed of an 

 egg on the 30th August. I have found many nests being built in August, a lesser number about 

 the middle of October, and one at Narrabri as late as November. The breeding season continues 

 until the end of December, during which time e\idently two broods are reared. 



Young birds have the feathers of the head, mantle, and back tipped with a dull white 

 sagittate marking, giving the upper parts a distinctly mottled appearance; the greater upper 

 wing-coverts, and the innermost secondaries have a light rufous wash, the former being tipped, 

 and the latter margined with dull whity-brown, as are also the tips of the primaries; the white 

 tips of the lateral tail feathers ha\'e an ochreous rufous wash, and the under parts are white with 

 only a faint indication of brown shaft lines on the sides of the breast. Wing 3 inches. 



Gould, who described Siiii-lln tcnuirostrts in his "Handbook to the Birds of Australia,"'^ from 

 a specimen obtained by Captain C. Sturt, the locality in which it was obtained being unknown, 

 refers it to a long-billed form of S. chrysoptera : while Dr. Gadow in the " Catalogue of Birds in 

 the British Museum,"! states that Gould's type is an immature male, and regards it as a sub- 

 species of Sittella pileata. 



Neositta pileata. 



BLACK-CAPPED BARK-PECKER. 



Sittella pileata, Gould, Proo. Zool. 80c., 18.37, p. 151; id., Bds. Austr., fob. Vol. IV., pi. 104 

 (1848); id. Handbk. Bds. Ausli-., Vol. I., p. CIl' (1865); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 

 VIII., p. 3G2, (1883). 

 A'nisilta pileata, Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds,, Vol. IV., p. 352 (1903). 



Adult male — General colour above greyisli-browu, some of tlie featliers on the back having 

 slightly durker brown centres; rump irhite; upper tail-coverts while ivaslied ivit/i rufous, except 

 towards the tip, wliere there is a iiarroiv black cross-bar, or wedge-shaped marking; upper wing- 

 coverts and quills blackish-broivn, the latter edged with tvhity-brown at the tips, and crossed in the 

 centre ivith a broad rich rufous band except a narrow edge on the outer tveb, this band decreasing in 

 extent towards the innermost secondaries which are brown irith a dusky wash near the shaft; tail 

 feathers brownish black, t/ie central feathers slightly and the outer ones largely tipped with tvhite; 

 crown of the head and centre of the nape black; foreliead, lores and orbital region white; ear-coverts 

 pale greyish-brown; cheeks, throat and all the under surface pure white ; flanks greyish-brown ; thighs 

 blackish-brown ; tinder tail-coverts white n-itJi a slight brownish wash on the basal portion and an 

 arrow heirled blackish-brown marking towards the tip : bill blackish-broivn, yelloiv at the base; legs 

 and feet yellow. Total length 4'75 inches, luiug 3-4, tail 1-7, bill 0-5S, tursus 07. 



• Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p 610, (1S63). 

 t Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus , Vol. VIII., p. 363 (1S83). 



