86 



PICARIAN BIRDS. 



There are no distinct powder -down patches, and the metatarsus is longer than 

 the middle toe. The loral bristles are greatly elongated, and give the face a 

 peculiar appearance. Eleven species are known, all found in Australia and the 

 adjacent Moluccan and Papuan Islands, as well as in New Caledonia. The 

 Australian owlet frog-mouth (^Egotheles novce-hollandice), which is about 8J 

 inches in length, has the general colour dusky with whitish vermiculations ; the 

 head being darker, with two longitudinal stripes of white and two crescentic 

 marks of white on the hind part and nape ; while the under surface of the body 



AUSTRALIAN OWLET FROG-MOUTH (f nat. size), 



is white with dusky vermiculations, and the abdomen and under tail-coverts more 

 or less uniform. This species ranges all over Australia and Tasmania, Gould stating 

 that he found many specimens and procured the eggs, which are four or five in 

 number, pure white, and are laid in the hole of a tree, without any attempt at a 

 nest. "During the day," he says, "the bird resorts to the hollow branches or 

 spouts, as they are called, and the holes of the gum-trees, sallying forth as night 

 approaches in quest of insects, particularly small beetles. Its flight is straight, 

 and not characterised by the sudden turns and descents of the goatsuckers. 

 On driving it from its haunts, I have sometimes observed it to fly direct to a 

 hole in another tree, but more frequently to alight on a neighbouring branch, 

 perching across and never parallel to it. When assailed in its retreat, it emits a 



