tSOPHODES. 73 



note terminating like the cracking of a stockman's whip, 

 although from its restless habits, while traversing the thick 

 undergrowth, it is always a difficult specimen to procure. A nest 

 of this species in the Australian Museum Collection, presented by 

 Dr. Hurst, and taken by that gentleman in August 1886, at 

 Newington, on the banks of the Parramatta River, is an open, 

 shallow structure, composed of long twigs bent round, and lined 

 inside with the leaves of the Casuarina; it measures externally 

 five and a-half inches in diameter, depth two and a-half inches ; 

 internal diameter three inches, depth one inch and a-half. The 

 nest was placed near a fallen log in a tangled mass of vines 

 ( Dioscorea) about two feet from the ground. Eggs two in number 

 for a sitting, of a bluish-white ground colour, spotted and 

 blotched all over with irregular shaped black uiarkings. Length 

 (A) 1-07 X 77 inch ; (B) 1-06 x 078 inch. Taken by Dr. Hurst. 



Two eggs taken by Dr. Ramsay at Lismore in the Richmond 

 River District, during November 1869, are of a pale bluish- 

 white ground colour, minutely spotted and boldly marked all over 

 with curiously shaped dashes of black, resembling crescents, 

 figures, letters ifec, while on the larger end are short wavy linear 

 markings of dark lilac interlacing one another, which together 

 with the spots and dashes of bla'ck form a nearly perfect zone. 

 Length (A) 1-07 x 0-82 inch ; (B) 1-04 x 0-84 inch. 



Specimens in my own collection, have the markings nearly 

 round, but the above described are the most usual varieties found. 



Nests containing eggs of this species have been found as early 

 as July, and as late as November. 



Dr. Hurst and myself were successful in obtaining the eggs of 

 this species at Newington on the 30th of July 1887, also two new 

 nests a week after in the same locality, one of the latter being 

 prettily esconced in the centre of a Zamia spiralis. 



Hah. Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence 

 River Districts, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. 

 (Bamsay.) 



