Data 
\No. 
on 
nN 
No. in 
A J. 
Campbell's No. of 
Book. Eggs. 
THE JACKSONIAN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION. 
to pieces.” The male bird is of a bluish-grey colour, the female being brown. I noticed that the food 
of these birds consists principally of Stick and Leaf mimicking insects (Phasmatide), also Praying 
Mantis insects (MJantide) and caterpillars, all of which they collect on the young foliage of the 
Eucalyptus trees. The late John Gould, writing on this species in 1865, states that it is far less 
common in New South Wales than it is at Port Essington, North Australia, where the late J. Gilbert 
collected the following particulars respecting it :—“ This bird is extremely shy and retiring in its habits. 
It generally inhabits the topmost branches of the loftiest and most thickly-foliaged trees growing in the 
immediate vicinity of swamps. Its note is altogether different from that of any other species of the 
genus, being a harsh, grating, buzzing tone, repeated rather rapidly about a dozen times in succession, 
followed by a lengthened interval. It appears to be a solitary species, as I never saw more than one 
at atime.” The nests are very like those of the Graucali. In the Clarence River district my brother 
and I noticed that the birds return to the same locality every season. 
I Har mrois iste 
— 
poUittraritetsrystyre 7 fieerirenen ttt (ithe 
NEST AND EGG OF THE CATERPILLAR CATCHER. 
(About half of the natural size.) 
Loc., Glen Ugie Peak, Clarence River, N.S.W. 
(See data No. 525, page 92.) 
Clutch of 1 egg, which is of a dirty yellowish-white ground colour, spotted and blotched all over 
with umber and light slate markings, and is quite a different variety compared with the latter specimen 
(No. 525). It was taken by myself, at Yellow Gully, near South Grafton, N.S.W., at a quarter to five 
on Christmas morning, 1897, after being awakened by a male Caterpillar Catcher making his buzzing-like 
call in a tree leaning over my tent. Half dressed I hurried off, leaving my companions in the “land of 
dreams,” and had only walked about 50 paces from the tent when I found the female sitting on a nest, 
40 feet from the ground, in a Bloodwood Eucalypt (Eucalyptus corymbosa). I climbed up, and got a 
splendid egg from it, then returned to camp, aroused my sleeping mates, and astonished them with 
my find. I partook of a hearty breakfast that morning. The egg measures in inches = 1°24 X 
082, and it is a narrower and more pointed specimen than the last one described. 
Set of 1 egg, which is very heavily and beautifully blotched, on a very pale greenish-white ground 
colour, but unfortunately is a small round malformed specimen, which contained no yolk, and only 
94 
