270 PLOCEID.E. 



Hawk's nest. On revisiting the spot a week later, I disturbed both Hawk and Finch from their 

 respective nests." 



From South Australia Dr. A. M. Morgan writes me as follows : — " Staganopkura guttata is 

 still common about Adelaide, and fairly numerous as far north as Port Augusta. A favorite 

 nesting place is the butt of a mistletoe, but any thick bushy branch is made use of. I have 

 found several nests decorated on the outside with small yellow everlasting flowers, giving them 

 a very pretty appearance. The eggs are three or four in number, usually the latter. They use 

 their old nests for shelters all through the winter, and I believe until the ne.xt nest is built. I 

 saw a nest at Port Augusta in July, and found one on the 2nd December, 1905, at Blackwood, 

 near Adelaide, with three young birds." 



The nest is spherical or retort-shaped in form, with a bottle-neck-like entrance, and varying 

 somewhat in size, according to the position in which it is built. A nest in the Australian 

 Museum group collection I found at Cook's River, near Croydon Park, on the 30th December, 

 1893, is nearly spherical in form, with a short spout-like entrance. It is formed of dried grasses 

 firmly bound round with the wiry stems of a Drosera, which stand out at all angles on the 

 exterior ; inside it is very sparingly lined at the bottom of the structure with fowls' feathers. 

 Externally it measures from the narrow entrance to the back of the nest nine inches in length, 

 and in breadth seven inches. It was built in a Needle-bush (Hakea acicularis), five feet from the 

 ground, and contained three fresh eggs. The nests are generally placed low down in thick 

 bushes, or in Turpentines or gum saplings ; also in vines growing around verandahs. I have 

 often seen them built in a Loranthits growing on a Eucalyptus fully fifty feet from the ground. 



In New South Wales five is usually the number of eggs laid for a sitting, sometimes six ; 

 they are pure white, and vary from a lengthened ellipse to elongate oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and lustreless. A set of five taken at Croydon Park on the 15th October, 

 1892, measures: — Length (A) o-8 x 0-5 inches; (B) 076 x 0-47 inches; (C) o 77 x 0-47 

 inches ; (D) o-S x 078 inches ; (E) 07S x 0-48 inches. A set of five taken at Belmore on 

 the 26th March, 1893, measures: — Length (A) 074 x 0-5 inches; (B) 074 x 0-52 inches; 

 (C) 073 X 0-51 inches; (D) 07 x 0-5 inches ; (E) 073 x 0-51 inches. A set of four, taken by 

 Mr. H. G. Barnard at Bimbi, Duaringa, Queensland, on the loth June, 1908, measures : — Length 

 (.A) 073 X 0-48 inches; (B) 073 x 0-51 inches; (C) 074 x 0-5 inches; (D) 072 x 0-5 

 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults but have the bill black and are duller in colour, lores like 

 the ear-coverts ashy-brown, band on the foreneck and flanks greyish-brown, the former indistinctly 

 mottled with dull white, and the latter alternately barred with dull white and dark brown. Wing 

 2-5 inches. In their progress towards maturity the lores are black, and black feathers appear in 

 the band on the foreneck, and black feathers with a white spot at the tip among the barred flank 

 feathers. Wing 2-6 inches. In this immature stage it will be seen that the wing-measurement 

 equals that of the adult. 



September and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season in New South 

 Wales. Nests may be found with eggs about the middle of September, but more often in October. 

 I have taken fresh eggs for a second brood as late as the end of December, and again in the 

 autumn months, when odd pairs occasionally breed in favourable seasons, towards the end of 

 March. At Roseville I saw a Spotted-sided Finch carrying grass to a half finished nest in a 

 gum sapling on the 23rd May, 1908. 



