most likely referable to Neoiitta leucoptcra, of which there are specimens in the AustraHan Museum 

 collection, procured by the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower in the same locality. 



The nest is precisely similar to that of N. chrysoptcrj, and is of a deep cup or an inverted 

 cone-shape with a cup like cavity at the top. It is formed of shreds of bark fitted together on 

 the outside with fine strips of bark held together with cobwebs, and is usually built at the junction 

 of a two or more pronged upright or nearly upright fork. Photographs forwarded to me by 

 Dr. A. M. Morgan of nests taken by him at Mount Gunson and Athelstone, South .Australia, 

 closely resemble that of A^. chysoptcra figured on the preceding page. The nest taken by Dr. 

 Morgan on the 19th August, 1900, at Athelstone, about seven miles from Adelaide, was built in 

 a Eucalyptus about twenty-seven feet from the ground and contained three slightly incubated 

 C'^s. This nest which I saw in the South Australian Museum, Adelaide, measures greatest 

 depth three inches and a half on one side of the fork, three inches on the other, external diameter 

 two inches and a quarter, the inner cup two inches in diameter by one inch and a third in depth. 



The eggs are three in number for a sitting, rounded oval in form, the shell being close gramed 

 smooth and lustreless. The same variation exists in the colour and disposition of the markings 

 as in Neositta chrysoptcra, but in the sets I have examined, typically the eggs of N. pilcata appear 

 to be more heavily blotched than are the eggs of that species. They vary from a bluish-grey to 

 a pale bluish-white ground colour, which is freckled, spotted, or heavily blotched with slaty-black 

 in some specimens, and slaty-grey, clouded underlying patches of the latter colour appearmg as 

 if beneath the surface of the shell. .\ set of two in the collection of the South Australian Museum, 

 Adelaide, are of dull white ground colour, with a broad band of blackish-grey blotches 

 around the larger end. A set of three taken in the Wimmera District, Victoria, measures :— 

 Length (A) o-68 x 0-51 inches; (B) o-66 x 0-5 inches; (C) 0-67 x 0-5+ inches. Another set 

 of three taken in Western Australia, measures :— Length (A) 07 x 0-48 inches; (B) 0-69 x 0-32 

 inches; (C) o-68 x 0-53 inches. 



The young male resembles the adult, but has a narrow sagittate whity-brown markmg on 

 the apical portion of the feathers on the crown of the head, nape, mantle and back, .giving these 

 parts a distinctly streaked appearance, the upper wing-coverts have a rufous spot at the tip, the 

 secondaries being similarly marked with brownish-white, and the primaries are narrowly edged 

 with brownish-white at the tip. \\'ing 3-2 inches. 



Neositta leucocephala. 



WHITE-HEADED BAHK-PEOKER. 

 Situlhi l,'Hru,yphaI,i, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 1-52: id., Bds. Austr,, fol.. Vol. IV., pi. 102 



(1848); id., Haadbk., Bds. Austr., Vol I., p. 610 (186.5); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 



VIII., p. .361 (1883). 

 XeoAtf,! h'Hru,:i,h<da, Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol. IV., p. 352 (1903). 



Adult male— e-'^-r,-/ ,-,h„n- „h„rr ,jr,-,,is/,-l,ru,rH, /„is.-.;„:/ ;„/n „ si:,,/,f/,/ ,-lr„rrr hmin, n,i iho 

 luwer hark, which has darhr hmin, mitrrs in umsf ,,/ tlir fralhrrs, as harr alsn Ih,' srapidars : vaiap 

 and apprr tail-mnrfs irhil,; thr laltrr a-ith a dark hnaru sirrah dna;, thr rrairr aad a-idrahaj oaf 

 iiitu a cross-bar tua-ards tj,r r.,-trr)iiiti/ 0/ emcli fcatlur ; apjj<r ii-iiaj-i-on'r/s darl.- /inara : (jai//s dark 

 brown crossed in th<- criitrr a-il/i a liroad rufous band except a narnnc edijc on iIk- (aitcr n-rh, tins liand 

 dfCTfasivii in ertmit tointrds thf invrmast secandarips irhirh arc crhjcd a-itlt (/rci/ish-hron-n ; tail 

 feathers l,l,a-h-',sh-tir,ara, t]f central pair narron-t ij cdijcd iclth a-lidc at the tips, the remainder tijtped 

 with n-hite, lanre lanjeli/on the nateruaist feathers : head and neck pare while: chest, breast, and 

 (didanien <ire;iis]i-n-hite. a-itli a l,nnrnish streak dmrn the centre ofeach feather : nnder tail-coverts white 



