and Eggs from Cape York. 57 



This bird (Plate I.) has been considered by several oruitlio- 

 logists as being the same as Ptilotis notata Gould ; but both 

 Mr. A. J. Campbell and I myself have gone carefully into this 

 subject and consider that Gould's original description of the 

 two species as being distinct holds good, especially from an 

 oological point of view, although both birds are found in 

 the same locality"^. P. gracilis is considerably smaller than 

 P. notata and has a proportionately longer bill. Their note, 

 habits, nest, and eggs are all different, and you get no inter- 

 mediate links between the two birds. Both have been sbot 

 off their nests on several occasions by Mr. Barnard at Cape 

 York, and by Mr. Hislop and myself iu the Bloomfield River 

 district. 



The nest is cup-shaped ; the upper portion is composed of 

 green moss and shreds of bark, and the lower portion 

 principally of flat pieces of paper-bark and moss. It is well 

 covered externally with cobwebs ; the inside is beautifully 

 and plentifully lined with the glossy white down from the 

 native cotton-plant. Its external diameter is 2\ inches, 

 internal If inch ; external depth 2^ inches, internal \\ inch. 

 The clutch is of two eggs, and their ground-colour is a rich 

 terra-cotta, varying in intensity and being much darker on 

 the larger end. There are a few dark-brown markings, 

 especially on the larger end ; but these vary in different 

 clutches, as iu some they are large and of a deeper shade 

 and form an irregular zone round the larger end, and in 

 others the spots are much smaller and more scattered. A 

 set I took in the Bloomfield River district on Nov. 23rd, 

 1896, measure : A '79 x -50, B '78 x "54 inch ; and another 

 set, taken by Mr. H. G. Barnard at Somerset, measure: 

 A •76X-48, B -77 X -51 inch. 



Since writing these remarks I have received a letter from 



* [We quite agree with the aiithor that this Ptiloti.^ is distinguishable 

 from P. notata, and have great pleasure in giving figures of the bird and 

 its nest from Mr. Le Souef s specimens. Dr. Gadow (Cat. B. ix. p. 227) 

 has united both species to P. analoga of New Guinea, and it is possible 

 that the larger P. notata may be barely separable from that form, but 

 the group requires careful revision. — Edd.] 



