362 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Its note is a harsh, grating kind of twitter, often repeated. 



The nest is a warm, dome-shaped structure, formed of leaves 

 and grasses, and Hned with feathers ; the eggs, which are 

 reddish white, minutely freckled and streaked with reddish 

 brown, particularly at the larger end, are three in number, 

 and nine lines long by seven lines broad. 



All the upper surface, wings, and tail brown ; the latter 

 crossed near the tip with a broad band of blackish brown, 

 and the outer feathers slightly tipped with white ; forehead 

 and lores deep black ; stripe above and a small patch below 

 the eye white ; spurious wing-feathers black, margined on 

 their inner web with white ; under surface in some specimens 

 greyish white, in others washed with yellow ; the feathers of 

 the throat and chest spotted with black on a light ground ; 

 irides greenish white. 



The female is somewhat smaller than her mate, and has the 

 lores brown instead of black ; in other respects her plumage 

 is very similar to that of the male. 



Total length 4 J inches ; bill f ; wing 2i ; tail 2 ; tarsi J. 



Sp. 219. SERICORNIS MAGNIROSTRIS, Gould. 



Large-billed Sericornis. 

 Acanthiza magnirostra, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part v. p. 146. 



Sericornis magnirostris, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iii. 

 pi. 52. 



The Sericornis mapiirostris is an inhabitant of the brushes 

 of New South Wales, both those which clothe the gulhes and 

 sides of the mountain -ranges of the interior, and those near 

 the coast, such as occur at Illawarra and on the banks of 

 the Hunter, the Clarence, the Macleay, and other rivers. 

 Although it has nothing either in its form or colouring to 

 recommend it to notice, it must always be an object of 

 interest, from the very singular nest it constructs, and which, 

 like that of Sericornis citreo^ularis, forms a remarkable 



