Vol. XXI. 

 1921 



] HOW'E, The Genus Cliniacteris. 33 



country, especially mountainous localities, hut is occasionally seen 

 in the box timber at Parwan, X'ictcjria. The nest is made of 

 bark, hair and fur in a hollow of a tree, generally twenty or 

 thirty feet up. 



Eggs — clutch, two or three ; roundish in form ; texture line ; 

 surface slightly glossy ; colour white, sparingly blotched about 

 the apex with reddish-brown and purplish-brown ; other speci- 

 mens more hnely speckled, chiefly about the same region, with 

 rich or dark brown, also dull purple (Campbell). Dimensions in 

 inches are: (1) .67 x .44. (2) .66 x .44, (3) .68 x .44. Another 

 set: (a) .66 x .44, (b) .67 x .44, (c) .67 x .44. These dimensions 

 are remarkably uniform, onh- varying a little in length. 



Mr. C. F. Belcher in "The Birds of the District of Geelong, 

 Australia," described the call-notes as a "succession of 

 perhaps twenty or thirty staccato notes in quick suc- 

 cession usually preceded by a somewhat higher one." 

 The call is somewhat hard to locate and the bird is, too, 

 difficult to find as it harmonises well with the bark of 

 the forest trees. It is more slender and creeper-like than 

 any of its congeners. It is ])ractically totally arboreal and the 

 only occasions I have noted of its alighting on the ground were 

 at Selby during Avigust, 1914, and again there in August, 1920. 

 In the first case, a male was eating a saturated bread crust. The 

 food consists of beetles and ants, chiefly the latter. At Selby. 

 a log was covered with dark red brown ants and a bird in com- 

 pany with two Red-browed Tree-creepers practically cleaned up 

 the lot. My first nest was at Ringwood in September, 1907, 

 when two eggs were found on a matting of bark and fur about 

 a foot down a hollow twelve feet up. A full set of three 

 eggs was discovered thirty feet up, and about one hundred paces 

 away another nest was found on October 26th. Another nest 

 contained young birds. On September 6th. 1920, nearly seven 

 years later, Mr. J. A. Ross found three fresh eggs in the hollow 

 of our first find. At Selby on October 17th. 1915, a nest con- 

 tained two fresh eggs. All these nests were close to creeks. 



Both parents feed the young. The visits to the nest are 

 frequent, fifteen being noted in as many minutes. Often a bird 

 returned before the other had left and the bird inside would take 

 the food from the waiting bird and return with it to the young. 

 The birds brought out any excreta as did the Red-browed species. 

 A\'hen building they approached the nest in the same manner 

 — alighting a short "distance below the hollow, remaining station- 

 ary a few seconds with the head back, and then creeping quickly 

 u]) and disappearing rapidly within. The lowest nest found was 

 fifteen inches from the ground and the highest seventy feet up. 

 From this nest a young bird, nearly fully fledged, flew. It 

 showed the rich chestnut rump of the immature which Gould 

 wrongly described as a separate species — C. pyrrJionota. In 

 referring to this red rump patch. Cai)t. S. A. White, in The Emu, 



