PODAROUS. 341 



a Crow or some other bird had partly eaten the two e^.i^s. Judge of my astonishment when, in 

 another week or two, he brought me two more from the same bird's nest." 



Mr. Tom Carter writes me from Broome Hill, South-western Australia: — " I take Fodargus 

 strigoides to be the species I have observed from the North-west Cape to Broome Hill, in 

 various localities, including Kellerberin, which is about one hundred and fifty miles east of 

 Fremantle. The skins from the north-west are more rufous than those from the south-west, 

 but the character of the markings seems to be the same. When found in broad daylight, sleeping 

 in the dense foliage of some saplings or scrub, they can be caught by hand if approached quietly. 

 In the north-west they appear to breed after rain, irrespective of season. Eggs were noted 

 there on 30th October, igoo, i6th July, 1901, 7th February, 1902, and a fledgling on 4th December, 

 1900. I have a skin of a fledgling procured at Broome Hill, on nth November, 1906. It is 

 mostly of a light grey colour, much lighter than any of my adult skins. When at Point Cloates, 

 a man engaged in sinking a well for me, shot a Frogmouth one night as it perched on the 

 windlass, as it frequently did. On dissection I found it to be crammed with large centipedes, 

 which made the slayer regret having shot a bird so useful at a camp. The male bird assists at 

 incubation. The nest is a very frail looking structure, and the eggs are always two in number. 

 The sitting bird will assume an upright position on the nest, with its beak pointing upwards, 

 causing it to much resemble the broken stump of a side branch." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland forwarded me a skin, nest and eggs procured by Mr. C. E. Cowle at 

 Illamurta, Central Australia, in 1903. The nest is a nearly flat structure, formed of short, thin 

 sticks and twigs, loosely interlaced together, averaging seven inches across by two and a half 

 inches in depth, and was built in a Mulga eight feet from the ground. 



The eggs, two in number, are pure white, elliptical oval in form, the shell being close-grained 

 and slightly lustrous. They measure : — Length (A) 1-58 x i-i inches; (B) i"52 x i-og inches. 



Podargus papuensis. 



PLUMED PODARGUS. 

 Podargus papuensis, Quoy at Gaim., Voy. de FAstrol,, Ois.pl. 13(1830); Gould, Handbk. Bds. 

 Austr., Vol. I., p. 91 (1865); id., Suppl. Bds. Austr., pi. 7 (1869); Hartert,, Cat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. XVI., p. 630 (1892) ; Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds., Vol II., p. 42 (1900). 



Adult male — General colour above white, thickly mottled all over with grey, broivn and black, 

 the apical portion of llie featlier'i ivith fewer mottling s, especially on the scapulars and greater wing- 

 coverts, where they form bands along the wing, the lesser and median coverts rufous-broivn, the tips 

 white, mottled with rufous- brown, and forming a less distinct line ; tail feathers resemble the back, but 

 have alternate greyish-white and broivn bands separated by a broken black transverse line ; above the 

 eye a white stripe, which is more distinct on the anterior portion ; all the under surface white mottled 

 with brown, all the feathers having narrow black shaft lines and three or more blackish-brown wavy 

 transverse lines, forming large white blotches on both webs ; " bill broivnish-grey ; legs and feet 

 brownish-grey " (Olive). Total length 21 inches, wing 12, tail 11, bill IS, tarsus 1-2. 



Adult female — Resembles the male in character of markings, but is smaller and rufous-broivn 

 above, the under surf ace paler, the chin, throat and fore neck almost uniform in colour and devoid of 

 white blotches on the feathers. Wing 10'6 inches. 



Disfrihitf Ion— North-eastern Queensland, Southern New Guinea. 

 |1nN Australia the Plumed Podargus inhabits the North-eastern portion of Queensland. 

 -L Specimens from Cape York have the feathers on the upper parts more broadly centred with 

 blackish-brown than examples obtained near Cooktown by Mr. E. A. C. Olive. I have never 

 seen a specimen of Gould's Podavgus plumiferns, which he states is a " native of the brushes of 



