146 ON THE NESTS AND EGGS OF CERTAIN AUSTRALIAN BIRDS, 



NOTES ON THE NESTS AND EGGS OF CERTAIN 

 AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



By a. J. North, F.L.S. 



EOPSALTRIA CAPITO, Gould. 



The localities which this bird frequents are the rich brushes 

 that clothe the sides of the rivers on the eastern coast of Aus- 

 tralia, extending from Rockingham Bay in the north, to the 

 Clarence River in the south. A nest of this species now before 

 me taken from the low fork of a tree near Ballina on the Rich- 

 mond River, is a deep cup-shaped structure composed of portions 

 of the dried leaves of the "lawyer- vine " {Calamus avstralis), held 

 together with a few wiry grass stems, the whole exterior being 

 covered with fine mosses, and ornamented in a few places with 

 large pieces of lichens. Extei'ior diameter two and three 

 quarters of an inch, by two inches and a-half in depth ; interior 

 diameter one and seven- eighths of an inch, by one and five- 

 eighths of an inch in depth. Eggs two in number for a 

 sitting, oval in form, slightly tapering at one end, of a veiy faint 

 dull greenish-white covered with indistinct markings of yellowish 

 and reddish-brown which at the larger end become more boldly 

 defined, where, intermingled with superimposed blotches of wood- 

 brown, they form an irregularly shaped zone Length 0"82 x 0'6 

 inch. The eggs of this bird are entirely devoid of the rich apple- 

 green ground colour of the southern representative, E. atistralis. 

 (From Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald's Coll.). 



Stictoptera annulosa, Gould. 



This pretty little Finch is found frequenting the northern and 

 north-western portions of the Australian Continent, where it takes 



