INSESSOUES. 483 



wings, and puffing out their plumage until they resemble a 

 great ball of feathers. 



The breeding-season commences in September and con- 

 tinues during the three following months. The nest is a large 

 domed structm'e of dried sticks, with an entrance in the side, 

 which is hidden from view by the sticks of the upper part of 

 the nest being made to project over it for four or five inches 

 like the thatch of a shed ; the inside is generally lined with 

 the soft parts of flowers and the dust of rotten wood, but 

 occasionally with feathers. In Western Australia the nest is 

 usually constructed in a dead jam-tree, the branches of which 

 are drawn together at the top like a broom. It often happens 

 that three or four pairs of birds build their nests in the same 

 small clump of trees. The eggs are very like those of P. 

 temporalis, the ground-colour being olive-grey clouded with 

 purplish brown, and streaked with similar hair-like lines of 

 black ; they are usually four in number, eleven and a half 

 lines long by eight lines broad. 



The sexes as well as the young so closely resemble each 

 other, that they can only be distinguished by the aid of dis- 

 section. 



Lores, space surrounding the eye and the ear-coverts dark 

 silky brown ; a broad line of white, bounded above and 

 beneath with a narrow one of dark brown, commences at the 

 base of the upper mandible, passes over the eye and continues 

 to the occiput ; crown of the head and all the upper surface, 

 flanks, and under tail-coverts olive-brown, passing into a 

 purer and deeper brown on the primaries ; tail dark brown, 

 crossed by very indistinct bars of a darker colour, the five 

 lateral feathers on each side tipped with white ; chin, throat, 

 and chest white ; bill blackish brown, the lower part of the 

 under mandible greyish white ; irides in the adult straw- 

 yellow, in the young brown ; feet blackish brown. 



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