340 



PODARGID.E. 



Australian Museum, which he took at Greendale, near Manly, on the 14th October, 1901. They 

 are now mounted in the Group Collection. 



Nestlings have the feathers of the upper parts dull white, centrally streaked or barred with 

 blackish-brown, wings and tail brown vermiculated with pale brown, all the under surface covered 

 with dull whity-brown down, with here and there a dull white feather mesially streaked with 

 blackish-brown. Wing 5 inches. 



August and the four following months constitutes the usual breeding season of this species. 



Podargus brachypterus. 



SHORT-WI\UED POD AUG US. 



Podargus brachypterii,s, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1846, p. 1G3 ; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., 

 p. 89 (1865). 



Adult male — Similar to the adult male 0/ Podargus .stricoides, but smaller aitd darker rufozis 

 on the upper wing-coverts. Total length H'O inches, iviiig U'J, tail 7'o, bill 1, tarsus I'l. 



Adult pem.ale — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — Western .\ustralia, South Australia, Central .'\ustralia. 



/'S^OULD'S Podargus brachypterus is a distinctly smaller form of F. strigoidcs, and not of 



V Jk P. phala-noides, to which Dr. Hartert in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum " 



states that it seems to belong. Of the adult females in the Australian Museum collection one is 

 most pronouncedly rufous, and e.vcept for the different barrings on the tail, and its smaller size, is 

 almost indistinguishable from the specimen of P. strigoidcs obtained by Mr. Robert Grant on the 

 Bellinger River. An adult female, shot from the nest by Mr. C. E. Cowle, at lllamurta, Central 

 Australia, is similar in colour to some of the grey forms of P. strigoidcs, and has a slight rufous 

 wash. Wing 87 inches. Another somewhat similar specimen in the collection, sex not 

 recorded, and procured by Mr. George Masters at Port Lincoln, South .Australia, has the wing- 

 measurement 9'4 inches. Probably specimens obtained from further east and north would be 

 found to be intermediate in size, until they reached in wing-measurement the typical P. strigoidcs. 



Probably referable to this form are the notes made by Dr. A. M. Morgan, on a trip to the 

 north-west of Port Augusta, South Australia, in August igoo: — " Podargus strigoidcs, a common 

 bird, only the light-coloured phase seen. Two nests were found on the 8th August, at Arcoona, 

 one hundred and forty miles north-west of Port Augusta. One was in a pine tree, about eight 

 feet from the ground, and contained three slightly incubated eggs ; the other nest had two 

 slightly incubated eggs, and was on the thick branch of a myall. On the nth August, at 

 Yeltacowie Creek, another nest was found with two eggs; and on the 12th August, at Mt. 

 Gunson, in a black oak, a new bulky nest was found in course of construction." Also the 

 following notes received from Dr. W. Macgillivray : — " Podargus phalanoidcs : Mr. J. M. Newman, 

 a friend of mine, manager of the Peak Hill Mine, Peak Hill, Western Australia, who collected 

 with me here for a couple of seasons, and who occasionally sends me notes from his present 

 district, wrote me under date 11 107 about a bird which I think must be the above species. 

 ' I had a peculiar experience with a Grey Owl. Our donkey driver saw her sitting on a bough, 

 and brought his whip over her ; she dropped, and he left her for dead, but finding she had been 

 sitting on a few twigs like a pigeon's nest, looked and found two eggs. These he brought to 

 me ; they were nearly hatched. Coming the same road two weeks later, he saw presumedly the 

 same owl sitting on the same nest. He lifted her off and found two more eggs, which he brought 

 me. I blew them ; they were quite fresh. A week or two later he found her again sitting, but 



