Jhe £mu 



Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



Birds of a fezither.' 



Vol. XX.] ist APRIL, 1921. [Part 4. 



Nests and Eggs Not Previously Described. 

 Bv H. I.. W'HiTK, C.F.A.O.U., Belltrees, N.S.W. 

 Atrichornis rufescens jacksoni (H. L. White). 



Nest. — A dome-shaped structure, placed amongst ferns on the 

 almost perpendicular bank of a creek ; composed of dead leaves, 

 small pieces of tree-fern, and well-bleached flat rush or scrub- 

 grass (Xei'otes), all very loosely put together. Outside diameter, 

 6 inches ; height about the same ; entrance at side very neat, 

 roundish, and \\ inches in diameter. Lined with a peculiar 

 composition resembling very coarse cardboard, made apparently 

 of soft decayed wood worked up when very wet and plastered 

 over the inside of the nest ; no other lining used. 



Egg (infertile, found with newly-hatched chick) resemliles 

 closely those found by S. W. Jackson in the Dorrigo scrubs of 

 New South Wales during 1898 and 1910, but rather more elongated, 

 and may be described as a swollen oval, measuring, in inches, 

 .97 X .68, as against .88 x .7, an average of the Dorrigo clutches. 

 Ground colour pale pinkish-white, well m^trkcd with specks and 

 irregular spots of brownish-red, the markings confined" chiefly to 

 the larger end, where they form a large, irregular zone. Surface 

 of shell fine and slightly glossy. 



Taken by S. W. Jackson, 27th October, 1920, on the Mac- 

 pherson Range, S.E. Queensland, at an elevation of 3,000 feet 

 al)ove sea-level. 



Pachycephala olivacea macphersonianus (H. L. White). 



Nesl. — -A comparatively large cup-shaped structure (resen'?l:)ling 

 that of the Harmonious Shrike-Thrush, Collyriocincla harmonica, 

 and the Crested Bell-Bird, Oreoica cristata), compactly and neatly 

 made of long, thin twigs, large and small dead leaves, green moss, 

 and strips from decayed palm leaves ; lined with soft yellowish 

 fern-stems and dried roots of orchids. Breadth over all, 6| inches : 

 egg cavity, 3^ inches x 2 inches. Placed 3 feet up in a spice-busli 

 {Helicia Youngiana) overgrown with wire vines (Rhipogonum 

 Fawcettianuin). 



Eggs. — Clutch, three, giving the following measurements in 

 inches :—(rt) 1.15 x .81, {b) 1.13 x .79, {c) 1.09 x .78. Grounct 

 colour pale yellowish-white, much darker about the larger end. 



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