Birds. 9177 
met with it in a state of nature on the small islands in Bass’s Straits, 
where it had evidently been breeding, as I observed several old nests 
in the barilla and other stunted shrubs; its natural province is the 
ground, to which it habitually resorts, and it decidedly evinces a pre- 
ference for spots of a sterile and barren character; it trips along with 
amazing swiftness, with a motion that can neither be described as a 
hop nor a run, but something between the two, accompanied by a 
bobbing action of the tail. Of its nidification, I regret to say, nothing 
is at present known.” ; 
It may be met with in the dry portion of the swamps extending 
between the Saltwater and Yarra rivers. I discovered its nest about 
four feet from the ground, in a stunted bush, on the edge of the dense 
“tea tree”’ scrub, which covers part ef that locality. The structure is 
cup-shaped, somewhat deep and about four inches outside diameter ; 
dried fibres, fine twigs and stalks form the exterior, and the lining is 
composed of horse-hair and fine grasses. It contained three fresh-laid 
eges; length eleven-sixteenths of an inch; extreme width seventeen- 
thirty-seconds of an inch; shape not much pointed; ground colour 
white, with fine red-brown markings, consisting of points, streaks and 
rounded dots, the larger markings being most abundant at the thicker 
end, where they form a sort of wreath, while some of the smaller ones 
are scattered over the other parts of the surface. The markings are, in 
nearly every case, surrounded by a faint ashy margin of their own 
colour, imitating the appearance of their having been painted on the 
white ground before the latter had properly dried, thus causing them 
partially to run into the white surface. This seems to be a de- 
cided characteristic in these eggs. The nest was discovered about 
October. 
Mr. Dobrée then proceeded to make some general remarks on the most 
interesting forms of nidification of Australian birds, in which respect 
he stated this country maintained its reputation for singularity. He 
alluded to the mound-raising Leipoa, or mallee-scrub pheasant, an egg 
of which he exhibited; the yellowtailed Acanthiza, of whose singular 
double-roomed pendant nest a specimen was shown; and remarked on 
the burrowing habits of the Pardalotus, as well as the hanging structure 
of the yellowthroated Sericornis, which he produced for inspection; 
he also recurred to the fact of the Australian representatives of the 
cuckoo family, though deprived of the familiar note, differing in no way 
from their European cousins in their habit of confiding their progeny 
to foster-parents. He further exhibited a valuable collection of 
VOL. XXII. 28 
