278 



PLOCEin^. 



nine eggs for a sitting, and in the north do not appear to have any regular breeding season. 

 About Adelaide this species usually breeds from September to the end of December. These 

 birds use their old nests for roosting places after the young have left ; they also build shelters 

 resembling their nests, but of much lighter construction. At Concipidney, on the 4th August, 

 1902, I saw a pair which had built themselves a shelter inside an old nest of Pomatostoiiiiis 

 snperciliosiis." 



It breeds in companies, usually in low bushes, several nests frequently being found in the same 

 bush. Hollow spouts are also resorted to, and in common with several other small species of 

 bfrds, underneath the nest of a Crow, Hawk, or Eagle. Almost any situation is availed of, and 



inany curious nesting sites have been recorded. 

 During September, 1896, Mr. George Savidge 

 observed it for the first time in the L pper 

 Clarence District, and forwarded me the skin of a 

 female which he had caught in the nest. The 

 nest, formed of dried grasses, was placed with 

 three others inside a nest of Termites, on the trunk 

 of a dead Eucalyptus, about fourteen feet from the 

 ground. All the Finches' nests had a separate 

 entrance in the ant-bed, and several full sets of 

 fresh eggs were obtained. Mr. Savidge forwarded 

 me a photograph of this unusual nesting site, and 

 which is here reproduced. The burrows in the 

 ant-bed were probably old nesting places of 

 fc^'>^'^'^^'''^ V^'^^^^L^^^"^^ ' S* ■ Macleay's Kingfisher. During the severe inland 



K.L" -jPa' , ..^/i^^BWr''^ ', .•■:«l#>Ti»..-N .. drought in 1(896, this species was noted for the 



first time by Mr. A. C. Ivatt, at Glanmire, 

 near Bathurst. Specimens were also obtained at 

 Campbelltown and Belmore, in the neighbourhood 

 of Sydney, and a nest containing fresh eggs was 

 taken in the latter locality in September. During 

 a drought in Queensland Mr. A. F. Smith informs 

 me that he observed numbers of these birds at 

 Ingham, on the Herbert River, and about fifteen 

 miles from the coast. At Melville, Western 

 Australia, Mme. Octave Le Bon informed me 

 that a pair of these birds built their nest inside a 

 rusty old tin lying on the ground near her house. 



The eggs are usually five or six in number 

 for a sitting, and of a faint bluish-white colour; 

 they are oval in form, the shell being close-grained, 

 smooth and lustreless. A set of six taken by Mr. 

 James I^amsay at Tyndarie in October, 1879, measures:— Length (A) o-6 x 0-43 inches; (B) 

 o-6i X 0-45 inches; (C) o-66 x 0-42 inches; (D) 0-62 x 0-43 inches ; (E) o-66 x 0-46 inches ; 

 (F) 0-65 X 0-45 inches. A set of five I took from a nest built in a tree in Mr. C. J. McMaster's 

 garden at " Wilga," near Moree, on the 9th November, 1897, measures :— Length (A) o-6 x 0-45 

 inches; (B) o-6 x 0-45 inches; (C) 0-62 x 0-45 inches; (D) 0-63 x 0-45 inches ; (E) o-66 x 

 o"46 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adult female, but have the centre of the head greyish-brown, the 

 chin and throat being of a clearer grey ; remainder of the under surface white with a fulvous wash, 



NE.STISG SITE OF CHESTNUT-EAKED FINCH 



