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on the Spotted Ground-bird.



Clutch, two usually, three occasionally; oval or lengthened in

form; texture somewhat fine; surface glossy ; colour, dull-

white, spotted and blotched with olive or umber and light or

dull-grey, the markings being usually thickest at the larger end.


.The season commences with the early breeders in


August or September, finishing with the late ones in December

or January. Between these extreme dates probably two broods

are reared.” Wood sa3^s—“ The young are able to run almost

as soon as they leave the egg, and in two days their bodies are

covered with a soft black down like that of the young water-

hen.” Can any one support this assertion from personal

knowledge of the genus? How remarkably different from the

Lyre-birds, of which the Ground-birds sometimes remind me !


Some of the colours of this species seem to fade after

the death of the bird, notably that which I have called “slate”

in my sketchy reference to the plumage, the Museum Catalogue

generally substituting the word “ grey” or ignoring it altogether.

But it had a very real existence while my bird lived: and Mr.

Peir, when describing his own bird, used the word rather more

freely but occasionally preferring “lavender” and “lilac.” I

must also draw attention to a large and very conspicuous patch of

bright blue-black (sometimes it looked pure but deep blue) on

the shoulder and adjacent feathers (wing-coverts), the former

set off with bold round white spots, the latter with less round

white tips. Mr. Peir says—“The whole of the wing-coverts are

a shiny black of very fine lustre spotted all over with pure white.


The sexes are different; and the adult female is thus des¬

cribed in the Catalogue :—“ Similar to the male in general appear¬

ance, but easily distinguished by the orange-rufous patch on the

hinder cheeks extending some distance along the sides of the

neck, and by the ashy throat and dull whitish chin replacing the

glossy black throat of the male ; the grey chest-band is present,

but is somewhat paler.” The length of the bird is about io

inches, and the colour of the iris “watery-black” or, as the

Catalogue has it, “very dark lead-colour.”


My story is long and rambling, but the spotted Ground-

bird is an exceedingly interesting subject; and neither before

nor since have I possessed any bird at all resembling it.



