^GOTHELKS. 



345 



from hollow boughs while passing beneath with flocks of sheep. Their nest is usually placed in 

 a hollow spout, generally in an upright one, but they are not particular as to the depth of the 

 hollow. I have seen their nests within a few feet of the entrance ; others as much as twelve feet 

 down. In the Geelong District, Victoria, I took eggs from the same hollow three years in 

 succession. This nest was placed in a Red Gum, about forty feet from the ground. I once 

 found a nest placed in a hole drilled into a bank of the Talbragar River, New South Wales." 



From South-western New South Wales, Dr. W. MacgiUivray writes me as follows:— 

 " /Egotheles nova-lwllandia is very common along all the creeks about Broken Hill ; hardly a 

 night can be passed in the open without its " chur-churring " note being heard from amongst 

 the trees. It is frequently flushed from the hollows in gums, in which during the spring months 

 it constructs its little nest of small dry gum or mulga leaves. The chief nesting months are 

 September and October, although a few nests may be found in the latter part of August 

 if the season be an early one, but I only noted this take place in 1905. By November all young 

 birds have left the nests. A full clutch of eggs is four, although one often finds three. They 

 are pure white in most instances, although some have brownish streaks, spots or irregular 

 markings on them, mostly at the larger end, where they sometimes form a ring. One clutch 

 which I have has every egg marked very distinctly ; other clutches have only one or two eggs 

 showing the markings, and sometimes these are very faint. The birds are easily flushed from 

 their hollows, the little round head appearing at the opening when one is only approaching the 

 tree, unless the bird happens to be sitting on eggs in an advanced stage of incubation, or very 

 young birds, when she may often be caught on the nest. These birds live easily in captivity, 

 and make interesting pets." 



Through Mr. E. H. Lane I have received the following notes made by his nephew, Mr. Leslie 

 Oakes:— "i?*: the Owlet Nightjar:— What we called the 'Small Owl' nested to my knowledge 

 in Newington College Chapel, on the Parramatta River, in the years 1878 and 1879. School 

 was held in the Chapel, and the bird was first noticed sitting in the partly open trap-door in the 

 ceiling. It used to sit there hour after hour quite motionless. Of course some of the boys 

 were soon up there after the nest, which was found in the corner formed where a ceiling-joist 

 joined the wall plate, near the end of the building. As far as I remember there was no 

 made nest, but I am inclined to think some rubbish was under the eggs. I got three eggs 

 about a fortnight after another boy had taken three, that was in 1878, and the nest was taken in 

 the same place in 1879. There was a large ventilator in the end of the Chapel, above the ceiling, 

 and I expect the birds went in and out of it when going to and leaving the nest." 



Dr. Lonsdale Holden informs me that he obtained this species at Circular Head, Tasmania, 

 in a thick tea-tree scrub in March, 1892, and found a specimen in a man's hut near Mornington, 

 Bellerive, on the 24th August, 1897. This bird was seen to come out of a hole in a tree, during the 

 previous month, and was chased and subsequently killed by a Butcher-bird" (Cradicus cinei'cus). 



The usual nesting place is in a hole in a tree, frequently in the remaining portion of a broken- 

 off hollow branch, or trunk of a tree, varying in height from four or five feet to thirty feet from 

 the ground. The eggs are generally placed on a layer of dead leaves, and sometimes fur, the 

 latter probably the old nesting place of a Tree-creeper. 



The eggs are usually three or four in number for a sitting, pure white, varying from elliptical 

 to oval in form, the shell being hard, close-grained and slightly lustrous. When emptied of their 

 contents, and several eggs are moved together while held in the palm of the hand, they produce 

 a sound as if they were made of porcelain, and similar to that produced by the eggs of Eyton's 

 Tree Duck when rubbed together. A set of four measure :— Length (A) 1-13 x 0-87 inches; 

 (B) I-I2 X 0-87 inches; (C) i-i8 x o-88 inches; (D) 1-14 x 0-85 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but are much darker in colour, the barrings less distinct, 

 and have no trace of the light collar on the hind neck. Wing 43 inches. 



September and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of the species. 



