Mr. M. Elsey on the Birds of Northern Australia. G.'5 



group of newly fledged birds. The female is dull wren-brown, with 

 a lighter under surface. There is another beautiful AVren much 

 larger and longer in the body ; it has a beautiful purple top to the 

 head, with oval spot of glossy black in the centre, and black zone 

 outside it ; the body is greyish-brown ; the tail is long, of a blue 

 tint, and having a sort of water-mark, if I may so call it, on the sur- 

 face, which gives various shades to the colour. There is also another 

 Wren of the same size and form and with a similar tail, but with a 

 plain grey head and a chestnut spot over the ear-coverts. This is a 

 female, the other a male ; of each I have only a single specimen. 

 All these build a dome-shaped nest of grass, in a low bush or tuft 

 of grass, and lay about February and March four white eggs, quite 

 translucent : the yolk shining through gives them a rose tint. I 

 have shot lately (^lay) a bird allied to Cinclorhamphiis, but to what 

 genus it belongs I do not exactly know. Of two specimens one had 

 iu its stomach large green seeds, the other bark, bugs and various 

 insects. 



The Finches are very numerous and very beautiful. I have ten or 

 twelve species, including Estrelda annulosa and Po'epMIa personata, 

 of which there are two or three varieties, similar in size, habits and 

 body colour, but differing in the glossy black of the face and chin, 

 and in the colour of the beak and legs. The beautiful Puejihila 

 Goi'.Idice is tolerably numerous ; of this also there are two varieties 

 or species : one with a black face, surrounded by a line of bright blue ; 

 the other has the anterior half of the face scarlet, the rest black, 

 edged with blue. Of both the breast is bright purplish-lilac ; the 

 belly canary -yellow ; the back a mixture of bright green and dark 

 brown, with light blue mixed over the rump. 



There are two Donacolas : Jtaviprymua, and a crimson and brown 

 one, of which there are one or two varieties. The Donacolas build 

 in some parts in low tea-trees overhanging water, making a large 

 spouted nest with a small cavity, of dry bark of tea-trees, and Pan- 

 danus. The Po'ephilcB generally have large nests of grass on the 

 gromid or in low tufts of grass ; one species builds in the small 

 bushes of CalUotrix and Melalenca, and composes its nest of minute 

 dry twigs, often so slenderly that it appears to have a double opening. 

 The EstreldiE build smaller and stouter nests in young Eucalypti 

 and small trees, from 15 to 20 feet high. They all lay six white eggs. 



I have met with two or three nests of the bower-bird, Chlamy- 

 dera nuchalis, but no one of my party has seen the birds. 



The Crow of this part of the country is a large bird, generally 

 solitary, with a small eye and hazel-brown iris ; it is very wary, and 

 with difficulty shot. 



The MeliphagidcB are not numerous, at least the more common 

 species ; the Tropidorhynchiis is feathered all over the head, and does 

 not merit its vulgar name. There is another somewhat resembling it 

 here, but without its singular voice, and with a stouter beak. It is 

 much like Anthochcera . A true Merops is also met with. 



I have been unable to learn anything of the habits or nidification 

 of the Meliphagidee at present. 



