148 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



gaged in extracting them ; at other times, particularly among 

 the limestone hills, Avhere there are but few trees, it descends 

 to the broken rocky ground in search of insects and their 

 larvae. 



It breeds in October and November, making a round com- 

 pact nest, in some instances of fibrous roots, lined with fine 

 hair-like grasses, in others of the stems of grasses and small 

 plants ; it is built either in a scrubby bush or among the 

 grass-like leaves of the Xanthorrhoea, and is deeper and more 

 cup-shaped than those of the other members of the group. 

 The eggs are subject to considerable variation in colour and 

 in the character of their markings ; they are usually bluish 

 white, spotted and blotched with lively reddish brown, inter- 

 mingled with obscure spots and dashes of purplish grey, all 

 the markings being most numerous towards the larger end ; 

 they are about eleven lines long by eight lines broad. 



The sexes are alike in colour, and can only be distinguished 

 from each other with certainty by dissection. I have re- 

 marked that specimens from Timor rather exceed in size 

 those collected on the Australian continent, and are some- 

 what lighter in colour ; but these variations are too slight to 

 be regarded as specific. 



Crown of the head, neck, throat, and chest grey, passing 

 into sooty grey on the abdomen ; space between the bill and 

 the eye, the fore part of the cheek, the chin, the upper and 

 under tail-coverts jet-black ; two middle tail-feathers black ; 

 the remainder black, largely tipped Avith white, with the ex- 

 ception of the outer feather on each side, in which the black co- 

 louring extends on the outer web nearly to the tip ; wings deep 

 grey ; primaries bluish grey ; under surface of the shoulder 

 white, passing into grey on the under side of the primaries ; 

 irides dark blackish brown ; bill light greyish blue at the base, 

 black at the tip ; legs and feet greenish grey. 



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