416 Mr. E. P. Ramsay on Australian Oology. 



for its bowers*. Stones are not common in many parts of the 

 brushes, and when a Pitta finds one it seems to make the most 

 of it. This species appears to live well in confinement. Mr. J. 

 Macgillivray informs me that he kept one in a cage for some 

 time — at first breaking open the snail-shells he gave it ; but 

 after a few days he furnished it with a supply of Helices and a 

 stone, which it at once made use of to break them against. 



Specimens of Pitta strepitansf, if it really be the same species, 

 from Cape York, in North Australia, differ greatly in size from 

 the New South Wales birds, being very much smaller and more 

 slightly built, except in the bill ; but the chief difference is in 

 the tvhite spot on the primaries, which in the North- Australian 

 examples extends over two feathers only, while in the New South 

 Wales birds it is conspicuous on three — the fourth, fifth, and 

 sixth primaries. Mr. Macgillivray, who has made himself ac- 

 quainted with the habits of the birds in both districts, informs 

 me that they do not differ either in the mode of nidification, the 

 colour of the eggs, or the call-note. I do not wish to argue in 

 favour of making the North-Australian bird a distinct species ; 

 still it would be quite consistent to do so, if we admit the Geo- 

 pelia placida of North Australia to be distinct from the G. tran- 

 quilla of New South Wales, solely because one is smaller than 

 the other ; for, as Mr. Gould himself says, the first " is so pre- 

 cisely the same in colouring " as the second " that a description 

 of it is quite unnecessary^^ (Handb. B. Austral, ii. p. 345). 



The nest of Pitta strepitans is a round dome-shaped structure, 

 having a large opening at the side, composed of roots, sticks, 

 and twigs, with a little moss, and lined with rootlets, mosses, 

 and a few feathers. It is usually placed upon the ground, but 

 sometimes a few inches from it, in the angle which the ''spurs'' 

 make with the stems of the trees, or some other suitable place. 

 The eggs are four in number; in length from 1*2 to 1*3 in. 

 by "9 to 1 inch in breadth. Their ground- colour is of a deli- 

 cate white, in some specimens bluish-white, having elongated, 

 irregularly-shaped spots of brown and blackish-brown evenly 



* [See Mr. Ramsay's letter on this species in the present number. — Ed.] 

 t I have lately been shown by Mr. KreiFt, Curator of the Australian 

 Museum, a specimen of P. mackloti from Cape York. 



