144 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



gallus, from one of which Mr. Elvery took no less than 35 eggs 

 in a season. Several pairs of the two ground birds, Pitta 

 strepitans and Orthonyx spinicaudus, were also here noted. 

 Many nests have been taken by Mr. Elvery of both kinds, and 

 he has supplied some very interesting notes. The Pitta usually 

 builds its nest in the fissures at the butts of Buoyong and Bean 

 trees. The covered-in structure, standing 12 inches high and 8 

 wide, is neatly made of green moss, dead leaves, and bits of stick, 

 while the exterior is ornamented with a few black skeletons of 

 Staghorn leaves. The entrance at the side is 3 inches in 

 diameter, and often a small platform of sticks and rotting wood 

 leads up to it. The eggs, four in number, are white, covered 

 with small black spots ; it is noticed that one egg in a clutch is 

 not so heavily marked as the remaining three. The Pitta has a 

 very striking plumage of brilliant colours, for the upper surface is 

 green, with beautiful light-blue on shoulders and tail coverts, and 

 the under surface of brown is set off with a bright splash of 

 vermilion on the abdomen. Its food consists of snails, which it 

 finds upon the ground, and soon frees of the shell by hitting on a 

 piece of stone. The call consists of three whistling notes, the 

 last of which is a tone or two higher than the former two, and 

 accents are on the first and third. It is a call easily imitated, and 

 by so doing the bird can be brought within gunshot. The 

 Orthonyx lays two pure white eggs in a nest made of dead leaves 

 and bits of decaying stick, about the same size as the Pitta's, 

 although the bird itself is much smaller. The nest is placed on 

 the ground, against a stone or a log forming suitable protection, 

 and is always in the vicinity of rotting fallen timber. 



Along the creek live a pair of Yellow-necked Bitterns, 

 Butoroides flavicollis, owning a stick nest 14 inches across, 

 situated on a branch overhanging the water, from which many 

 clutches of three eggs each have been taken. 



The last bird to be mentioned is, however, not of least im- 

 portance. It is the Scrub-bird, Atrichia rvfescens, quite a unique 

 species, measuring about 6 inches in length, with plumage of a 

 rich brown, each feather being finely barred with transverse lines 

 of black, relieved only by a fawn-coloured throat. A solitary 

 male bird will frequent a mass of fallen timber, or an entangle- 

 ment of Lawyer vines, and from its hiding place pour forth all 

 descriptions of sounds, for it is an accomplished mimic. But the 

 curious thing about the species is that the female has never been 

 found. Collectors have shot dozens of specimens, but all proved 

 to be male birds. However, one important step has been taken 

 towards determining their economic history, for in October, 1898, 

 a nest and two eggs, identified as belonging to the species, were 

 taken by Mr. S. W. Jackson in the Clarence River district. The 

 Atrichia approaches in relation nearest the Bristle-birds. There is 



