fee THE JACKSONIAN OOLOGICAL COLLECTION, 
ae ges: Eigee. 
maculata), at a height of 20 feet, and contained two young birds. It seems very remarkable that the 
nest of this Owl can be found so near Sydney, and yet its eggs are undescribed. Strange to say a 
Crow’s nest, containing young birds, was situated in a Spotted Eucalypt only 20 yards from the Owl’s 
nest, and was placed at an altitude of nearly go feet. We frequently came across the Powerful Owl 
(Ninox stvenua), Gould, in the scrubs of the Clarence and Richmond River districts of N.S.W. ; and 
during October of 1893 I found a large portion of white egg shell on the ground beneath some large 
dead trees that stood in Alipou scrub at South Grafton, at a part where these birds were always 
to be found roosting. I have no doubt that the shell belongs to this species, and judging from 
the shape and size of it, a perfect egg would be about two inches long. I have frequently seen 
these powerful birds with opossums and kangaroo rats in their talons, as they were feeding in a thickly 
foliaged tree, which they would handle and crush as if only mice. Passing by, looking up at 
them as they are feeding or roosting, they assume quite a supercilious expression as they peer down 
upon you with those large bright yellow eyes, which follow every step you take. The note or loud 
screech of this Owl is most extraordinary, and on a still night can be heard a long way off; it is such a 
sudden scream, that it naturally alarms those within hearing. While camped at Booyong scrubs, near 
Lismore, N.S.W., in 1899 and 1904, I often heard it, but rarely before midnight. The information I 
obtained from the people living in the latter scrubs was really very amusing; some told me quite 
seriously that it was the cry of the “ Porcupine,” while with others it was the “ Bunyip.” The aborigines 
of the Clarence and Richmond River districts explained to me, with much gesture, that it was the cry 
of the “ big one debil debil.” These blacks are very superstitious, and prefer camping in the open bush 
or forest, having a decided dislike to go in or near the scrubs. 
561 at 3 LESSER MASKED OWL, 
Strix delicatula, Gould. 
Set of 3 rare eggs, which were taken from the hollow spout of a Eucalypt on the banks of the 
Nicholson River, Gulf of Carpentaria, North-west Queensland, by C. Woodlands, on the 4th of October, 
1897. Specimen A. measures = 1°64 x 1°39, and isa little larger than the other two. 
Gz) iast> TAWNY FROGMOUTH, 
Podargus strigoides, Latham, 
(This bird is known to the aborigines of the Clarence River district as ‘‘ Car-bud."') 
Splendid set of 3 eggs, taken near South Grafton, N.S.W., by Frank and Sid. W. Jackson, on the 
21st of October, 1894. The nest was placed on the horizontal branch of a dead Bloodwood Eucalypt 
(Eucalyptus corymbosa), at an altitude of 30 feet, and as usual the surroundings accurately harmonized 
with the color of the bird. This peculiar frog-mouthed bird builds a scanty, flat, and exposed nest of 
thin sticks, which is placed on the forked limb of a tree. It generally selects a dead one, the same 
color as the bird, which is grey. When sitting on the nest it is most difficult to see, and during the day 
remains perfectly motionless with its eyes closed, if danger is near, and, stretching out its beak, makes 
its body appear perfectly straight, exactly like a broken dead stick lying across the nest. Like most 
of the nocturnal birds, its eggs are pure white, and the young ones, which I have frequently found, 
resemble, on leaving the eggs, balls of beautiful white down. The notes of this bird, which is so often 
erroneously called the “‘ More Pork,” are of a smothered or ventriloquous sound, and are rapidly kept 
up for twelve or fifteen seconds, resembling—‘“ uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh,” and are not unlike the plaintive 
notes uttered by the Painted Quail (Turnix varia), only they are much more rapid. The fully fledged 
young birds I have often seen asleep in the trees, and as their plumage is of a rich tawny colour, 
not grey as is the case with the adult specimens, they resort to darker limbs. During December 
of last year (1906) I found four young birds, sitting one behind the other, ina Red Ironbark Eucalyptus 
(Eucalyptus siderophloia), and their protective coloration so nearly resembled the dark bark upon the 
branch of that tree, as to render them scarcely distinguishable from it. The eggs in this clutch are very 
elongated, and Specimen A. measures = 2°01 X 1°23. 
125 
