STIGMATOPS. 



81 



Mr. A. F. Smith writes me from Cairns, Xorth-eastern Queensland: — " Glycyphila ocularis is 

 plentiful about Hambledon :\Iill, judging by the amount of singing to be heard in the forest country. 

 At Ingham on the Herbert River, I found a nest with two fresh eggs on the 28th June, 1903," 



The first nest and several sets of eggs of this species, I received from the late Mr. George 

 Barnard of Coomooboo'.aroo, Duaringa, Dawson River, Queensland. A nest taken by him on the 

 nth September, 1888, was attached to the thin horizontal twigs of an orange tree in his garden, 

 and was built within a few feet from the ground. It is a neat cup-shaped structure, outwardly 

 composed of strips of bark and grasses held together with webs and egg -bags of spiders, the inside 

 being lined with finer grasses, cow-hair, and at the bottom with white downy seeds. Externally 

 it measures two inches in diameter by one inch and a half in depth; the inner cup measuring 

 one inch and a half in diameter by one inch and a quarter in depth. 



The nest figured, reproduced 

 fiom a photograph, taken by 

 Mr. George Savidge, was 

 built in a Red Bottle-brush 

 Calhsfcinon Iniiceohitiis j over- 

 iianging the Upper Clarence 

 River at Copmanhurst. It is 

 attached by the rim to the leafy 

 txtremities of a thin forked 

 liorizontal branch, and is extern- 

 ally formed of plant-down, egg- 

 bags of spiders, cobwebs and a 

 little wool all matted up together, 

 the inside being lined entirely 

 ith a thick felting of white 

 ' iwny seeds. Externally it 

 measures three inches in diameter 

 bv one inch and three-quarters 

 in depth, the inner cup measuring 

 two inches in diameter by one 

 inch and a half in depth. It 

 ur lUK i;i:0"\ iioxEV-iCA lEK. contained two eg£;s. 



XEM AMI I,' 



Relative to this species in the Upper Clarence River District, New South Wales, Mr. 

 George Savidge writes me: — "I have never seen Stigmaiops ocularis away from watercourses and 

 the riverbed shingles, and it has a very loud and pleasing note for so small a bird. The nest is 

 usually built in the Water Gums, and sometimes in a branch overhanging the water, the site 

 varying from an altitude of three to twenty feet. The eggs are sometimes pure white, and are 

 usually laid from August to the end of October, but I found one nest with fresh eggs in the early 

 days of January." 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, rounded oval in form, the shell being close-grained 

 and lustreless. They are white, and finely freckled or peppered, particularly on the larger end, 

 with almost invisible markings of faint reddish or chestnut-brown. A set of two taken by Mr. 

 H. G. Barnard at Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, Queensland, on the 26th July, 1892, measures: — 

 Length (A) o-66 x o"55 inches; (B) o-66 x 0-53 inches. .A set of two in the Australian Museum 

 collection taken by Mr. George Savidge on the Upper Clarence River, near Copmanhurst, are 

 dull white, slightly nest-stained on one side, but are entirely devoid of markings. Length (A) 

 o'7 X o'5i inches; (B) o'/i x o-ji inches. 



