398 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



with trees, and spends much of its time on the ground, from 

 which it makes perpendicular ascents to a great height in the 

 air, and then descending to the tops of the highest trees, flies 

 horizontally from one tree to another, singing all the time 

 with the greatest volubility ; the female, which is not more 

 than half the size of the male, remaining all the while on 

 the ground, from which she is not easily aroused, and con- 

 sequently not so often seen. It breeds in October, November, 

 and December, and generally rears two broods during the 

 season. The nest is placed in a depression of the earth, most 

 frequently at the foot of a slightly raised tuft of grass, and is 

 externally composed of strong grasses and lined with very fine 

 grasses, and sometimes with hairs. The eggs are four in 

 number, ten lines long by seven and a half lines broad, and 

 are of a purplish white, very broadly marked with freckles 

 and small blotches of deep chestnut-brown, so much so as 

 frequently to render the blotches more conspicuous than the 

 ground-colour. 



The male has all the upper surface dark brown, each 

 feather margined with olive brown ; upper tail-coverts rufous ; 

 lores black ; stripe above the eye and throat whitish ; all the 

 under surface pale brownish grey, deepening into buff" on the 

 under tail- coverts, and with a series of minute spots of brown 

 on the breast ; irides hazel ; bill dark lead-colom' in summer, 

 fleshy brown in winter ; tarsi yellowish grey ; feet bluish 

 ashy grey. 



The female is smaller, and is destitute of the black lores ; 

 in other respects she is so like the male that a separate 

 description is unnecessary. She is said to frequently utter a 

 sharp shriek during the night. 



