20 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



coastal regions of New South Wales and Southern Queens- 

 land. 



During my visit (1891) to the "Big Scrub" of the 

 Kichmond Eiver district, the peculiar voice of this bird 

 was heard everywhere throughout the locality. The cry is 

 a real cat-like " mew-mew," with a strong accent on the 

 second " mew," as if some one had trodden on a cat's tail. 

 I happened to observe a pair of birds "caterwauling" about 

 a nest, which was situated about 15 feet from the ground, 

 in a small tree on the bank of Pearce's Creek. I climbed 

 to the nest, only to be disappointed in finding a pair of 

 young, clothed in down as black as ink, instead of a set of 

 the rare, cream-coloured eggs. 



My companion, Mr W. T. Bailey, and I found several other 

 nests of the Cat-Bird in the course of construction, or ready 

 for eggs, but we had to turn our backs on the " Big Scrub " 

 without securing such coveted eggs. The nest, of which the 

 description is given above, was felled by scrub-fellers, the 

 contents of course being smashed. However, a pair of eggs, 

 taken by Mr James Gordon, soon followed me home. The 

 nest was found in a young Buryong tree {Tarrietia), at a 

 height of 15 or 16 feet from the ground — Date, November 

 1891. Subsequently, Mr Bailey kindly sent me from the 

 same district a lustrous set of 3 eggs, taken on the 23rd 

 December 1894. 



The first authenticated finds of Cat-Bird's eggs were by 

 Mr Henry E. Elvery, Eichmond Eiver (1881), and by my 

 venerable friend Mr Hermann Lan, South Queensland (1886). 

 These finds were not reported at the time, and the credit fell 

 to Mr W. J. Grime for a nest and Q^g which he procured in 

 the Tweed Eiver district, and forwarded to the Australian 

 Museum. The following is Mr Grime's account, as given in 

 the Records of that institution : — " On the 4th October 1890 



1 was out looking for nests, accompanied by a boy. I left 

 him for a little while to go farther in the scrub, and on my 

 return he informed me he had found a Cat-Bird's nest with 



2 eggs, one of which he showed me, the other one he broke 

 descending the tree. I went with him to the nest, and found 

 the old birds very savage, fiying at us, and fiuttering along 



