102 



MliLIPIIAGID.E. 



It utters several times in succession a shrill note, resembling the noise produced by a drill 

 on a steel plate, or a close fitting and unoiled key rapidly turned in a new door-lock. 



Specimens in the Australian :\Iaseum collection obtained by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and Robt. 

 Grant near Cairns, Queensland, are slightly smaller and the centre of the throat is paler than 

 examples procured in the neighbourhood of Sydney. Dr. W. .\. Angove informs me that it is 

 very common and breeds at Tea-tree Gully near Adelaide. 



The nest is a cup-.shaped structure externally formed of fine strips of bark or bark-fibre 

 and dried grasses, and warmly lined inside with downy feathers, several of which are often worked 

 perpendicularly into the sides and the ends curl over the inner cup; Cinuarina leaves and horse- 

 hair are also used in the construction of some nests. An average nest measures externally three 

 inches in diameter by two inches and a half in depth, the inner cup measuring two inches in 

 diameter by one inch and a half in depth. The nest is attached at the rim to the horizontal 

 ^.3sr= leafy twigs of any suitable shrub or tree. Usually it is built 



at an height of from four to fifteen feet from the ground. 

 Further on it will be seen that the altitude at which the nest 

 is placed, in the neighbourhood of Sydney, is as \aried as the 

 trees selected as nesting sites. 



The eggs are usually two, rarely three in number for a 

 sitting, oval in form, and somewhat pointed at the smaller 

 end, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustrous. 

 They are of a fleshy-buff ground colour, and of a darker shade 

 towards the larger end, where they are spotted with chestnut 

 or rich reddish-brown, some specimens having also a few 

 underlying spots of dull grey, or scattered surface markings 

 distributed over the shell. Frequently the markings are 

 penumbral. or are confined to a clouded band of a richer 

 shade of the ground colour. In some the ground colour is 

 almost pure white, except on the larger end where it is 

 tinged with buft". A set of two taken at Canterbury, on the 

 i6th September, 1896, measure:— Length (A) 079 x 0-58 inches; (B) 078 x o-68 inches. A 

 set of two taken at Roseville, on the 22nd September, 1906, measure:— Length (A) 075 x 0-55 

 inches; (B) 074 x 0-55 inches. 



Nestlings just prior to leaving the nest have the upper parts including the crown of the 

 head dull grey washed with olive; all the under parts dull fawn colour; culmen fleshy-brown, 

 lower mandible and cutting edge of upper mandible rich yellow; legs fleshy-grey, feet grey. 

 Wing 17 inches. A young male in the .Vustralian Museum collection in this stage of plumage 

 has the cheeks whitish, ^^'ing 2-5 inciies. 



There is a semi-albino of this species in the Australian IMuseum collection procured at 

 Middle Harbour in 1876. 



At Roseville I found a nest on the 24th September, 1898, in a Zi(7»fo;rt, with two recently 

 hatched young, which the female was very reluctant to leave. Earlier in the same month I saw 

 fledgelings at Springwood on the Blue Mountains, being fed by their parents, and again two 

 more having their wants attended to at Enfield, on the 6th Januarv. .\t Roseville I found a 

 nest in a Turpentine tree eight feet from the ground. It contained a single young bird which 

 fluttered out of the nest and settled on my coat. It lived two days, and is now a specimen 

 in the Australian Museum collection. .\t Canterbury 1 obtained nests with fresh eggs on the 

 loth September, and the 8th November, 1893, both nests were built in Melaleucas, about twelve 

 feet from the ground. At Kingsgrove I saw a nest being built on the 26th December, 1S93, in 



SPIXE-BILLr.D IIOXKY KATKH. 



