PODARCUS. 339 



as possible, the head and neck are extended on a level with the feet with all feathers erect, eyes 

 and mouth widely opened, wings stretched out, and tail feathers expanded and elevated, a 

 succession of hoarse grunts being uttered at the same time." 



The nest is a nearly flat structure, formed of twigs thicker below, finer above, the slight 

 depression in the centre sometimes being lined with Eucalyptus leaves. They vary in size and 

 form, some being more scanty than others, and of an average diameter of nine inches and a depth 

 of three inches ; while nests may be found eight inches in length by five inches in breadth. They 

 are usually placed on a horizontal fork, or at the junction of a thick and nearly upright forked 

 trunk of a tree, at a height varying from ten to thirty feet or more from the ground. The bird 

 at all times sits very close, and the male assists in the task of incubation. While resident at 

 Bellerive, near Hobart, Tasmania, Dr. L. Holden forwarded me a photograph of a nest and two 

 eggs under the name of Podargiis cuvicri, found by him on the 23rd November, 1899, and wrote 

 me : — " The ' Morepork,' as she sits three-quarters on to the observer, strikingly resembles the 

 drawing of the True Griffin in the third volume of ' Modern Painters.' " 





NKST AND YOUNi; OF TAWNY-SHOULDERED PODARGUS. 



The eggs are two or three in number, more often have I found the latter for a sitting, elongate 

 or elliptical oval in form, the shell being almost close-grained in some, finely granulate in others, 

 pure white and the surface slightly lustrous. A set of two taken at Roseville on the 3rd 

 September, 1907, measure :— Length (A) 1-87 x 1-33 inches; (B) i-8i x 1-32 inches. A set of 

 three taken at Belmore on the 9th November, 1905, measures: — Length (A) 175 x 1-22 inches; 

 (B) 173 x 1-23 inches; (C) 173 x 1-24 inches. An unusually small set measures ;— Length 

 (A) i'52 X fi5 inches; (B) i-6 x rii inches. 



Mr. Leslie Oakes informs me that he once found a nest of Podnvgus strigoides, containing 

 eggs, built inside an old mud nest of Coriora.x mclanovhamphus. 



The young, when first hatched, are clothed in pure white down, and have the eyes unopened. 

 Mr. R. Lennard presented a nest and three live recently hatched young to the Trustees of the 



