124 Proceedings of ihe Royal Society of Victoria. 



and otherwise, it appears that November was too early for 

 the ninjority of the birds. However, just prior to leaving 

 (19th ^'ovember) we detected a female carrying a stick, and 

 after much laborious work we succeeded in tracing her 

 through an entanglement of wild ras[)beri-ies and stinging 

 trees, and were satisfied that she was building in a certain 

 bushy Buoyong {Tarrietia) tree, after seeing her return 

 sevei-al times, each time with a twig in her bill. Marking 

 the tree, we {pointed it out to two young farmers, directing 

 them to send the eggs after us. Some weeks afterwards, I 

 received a doleful letter stating they were unable to climb 

 the tiee. However, the next month another farmer, whose 

 scrub paddock I had scoured, following up my instructions, 

 fnind therein a Regent's nest containing a pair of fresh eggs, 

 which I now have pleasure in describing. 



The Eyg.s. — {a) A beautiful, well-shaped s[)ecimen, with a 

 fine texture of shell of a light yellowish-stone colour, with a 

 fvint green isli tinge, and marked with blotches and spots of 

 sienna, but principally with hair-like markings of the same 

 colour in I'anciful shapes and figures, as if a person had 

 painted them on with a fine brusli. Intermingled are a few 

 gre3dsh streaks, dull, as if under the shell's surface. All the 

 markings are fairly distributed, but are more abundant 

 around the upper quarter of the egg. The dimensions are 

 1 cm. long hy i\ breadth of 2'8 cm., somewhat large compared 

 with the size of the jjarent. The character of the markings 

 resemble nnich the egg of its close ally, the Spotted Bower- 

 bird (Ohlamydodera nuicidata), which 1 ibund near 

 Wentworth, River Darling, October 1887, with the difference 

 that the ground colour of the Regent is more yellowish and 

 not of tiie greenish shade of the Bower-bird, (fj) Similar to 

 the other s[)ecimen, but markings less pi'onounced and finer 

 in charactei', with a g'eater proportion of the dull greyish 

 hair-like streaks, also a little smaller; length .S-9o cm. by 

 a breadth of 2 75 cm. 



The jS'ed. — It was discovered during the last week in 

 December, was placed about 15 feet from the ground, and 

 was observed by the bird sitting thereon. The structure 

 was of such a loose nature — merely a few twigs forming a 

 flat shelf about five inches across — that it fell to pieces on 

 removal from the tree. It was accounted remarkable how 

 the eggs could retain their position in it. The description 

 of the nest verifies the statement found in Gould, that " it is 

 rudely constructed of sticks ; no other material being 



