64 PACHYCEPHALIN^. 



spots of black on the larger end ; the latter of which are easily 

 removed by wetting them. Length 1-36 x 0-96 inch. 



This species breeds during the months of September, October, 

 and November. 



Hah Tasmania. {Bamsay.) 



Sub-Family PACHYOEPHALINiE. 



Genus PACHYCEPHALA, Swamson. 

 ^ "i . PACHYCEPHALA GUTTURALIS, Latliam. 

 White-throated Thickhead. 



Gould, Sandhk. Bds. Aust, Vol. i., sp. 113, p. 207. XST- i. 



The nest of this species is an open one, and usually composed 

 of twigs and roots, and lined with grass, but differs according to 

 the locality in which it is found ; in Gippsland the nests are built 

 with the fibrous roots of the Dicksonia antarctica, in the dead 

 drooping fronds of which they are artfully concealed, at other 

 times they are composed wholly of the long thin leaves of the 

 Casuarina, and placed in some upright fork of a tree about six 

 feet from the ground. The eggs are subject to considerable 

 variation both in the ground colour and their markings, the most 

 usual form being of a yellow or brownish-buff, thickly marked with 

 freckles of dark umber and blackish-brown, with a few obsolete 

 blotches and spots of lilac, particulary towards the thicker end, 

 where they become confluent and form an irregular zone. Length 

 (A) 0-92 X 0-67 inch ; (B) 0-88 x 0-67 inch ; (C) 0-9.5 x 0-68 inch. 



While collecting at Heathcote, on the Illawarra Line, in 

 company with Dr. Hurst on the 29th of October, in 1886, a nest 

 was taken, containing two eggs of this species, the ground colour 

 of which is of a deep yellowish-buff; one specimen (a) has a broad 

 band of dark umber-brown blotches round the centre of the egg, 

 the other (b) has two distinct zones, but narrower than in (a), of 



