THE VICTOKIAN NATURALIST. 31 



of them. Mr. Rogers kindly supplied me with the particulars of 

 the soft parts. 



Adult female, Derby, W.A,, 21/3/01. — Whole of upper surface 

 brownish grey to grey, being nearest ashy-grey on the forehead, 

 becoming grey as it recedes, and greyest on the upper tail coverts ; 

 the feathers of forehead and crown showing blackish centre 

 streaks ; wing coverts and quills brown to greyish-brown, the 

 secondaries broadly margined with light grey, and the longest 

 primaries narrowly on the outer margins ; first primary of one 

 wing dull cinnamon-brown, being displaced in the other by a new 

 grey feather ; tail greyish-brown, greyer below than above ; chin 

 and throat white, with a brown stripe along the rachis of each 

 feather ; under tail coverts white ; chest, breast, abdomen, and 

 flanks pale brown, each feather streaked down the midrib with 

 blackish-brown ; lores creamy white ; narrow circle of feathers 

 round eye white ; ear coverts brownish, slightly lustrous ; scapulars 

 pale brown ; under wing coverts white with dark lines ; bill, 

 upper mandible brownish-black, lower greyish, with the cutting 

 edge brown ; legs leaden grey ; feet brown ; irides reddish-brown. 

 Total length, 8.25 inches; culmen, 0.75 inch; wing, 3.85 

 inches ; tarsus, i inch ; tail, 3.35 inches. 



NEW NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



By Robert Hall. 



The following nests and eggs, with skins of the birds, have been 

 forwarded to me from Derby, North-West Australia, by Mr. J. P. 

 Rogers, a careful and enthusiastic field naturalist recently in 

 Derby : — 



ZosTEROPS LUTEA, Gld., Yellow Silver-eye. 



Nest. — Cup-shaped, shallow, firm, made of pale straw-coloured 

 fibrous grasses, and plentifully spotted upon the external portion 

 with whitish clotted spider webs ; no special internal lining ; nest 

 suspended from horizontal twigs of a mangrove. Dimensions 

 over all. — Diameter, 2.5 inches; depth, 1.5 inches; egg cavity, 

 1.75 inches broad x 12.5 inches deep. 



Eggs. — Clutch a. — Three to the sitting, 17/3/01. Colour 

 uniform pale bluish-green. Dimensions. — Axis, 0.65 inch ; dia- 

 meter, 0.5 inch. Clutch b. — 18/3/01. One egg, one large nest- 

 ling, and one bird recently hatched. Egg. — Axis, 0.6 inch ; dia- 

 meter, 0.5 inch. Both nests were placed upon a small mangrove 

 bush, at about four feet from the ground, and when Mr. Rogers 

 visited the second one (6) on 26/3/01 he found high floods had 

 drowned the young birds. 



