AMYTIS. 123 



the nest is not always placed in out of tlie way situations, one 

 being found only a iew feet from a well-frequented track, and 

 another within a stone's-throw of the house. The most successful 

 collector I know of, Mr. E. Pakenham, obtained no less than six 

 eggs of this species in one day. The breeding season of this 

 species commences in the month of May and continues the three 

 following months. 



" Menura viciorice, Var. A. Ground colour olive-brown, of a 

 rather light tint, with spots of blackish-brown and purple-brown, 

 some confluent, others solitary, rather crowded on the top of the 

 thicker end ; there are also- a few obsolete spots of a lilac tint; 

 length 2-37 x 1-65 inch. Var. B. Ground colour purplish-stone 

 colour or dark brownish-purple, with obsolete spots and irregular 

 markings of blackish, crowded towards the thick end, and forming 

 a dark patch at the top where they overlap, some of the spots on 

 the body of the egg are elongate and interspersed among freckles 

 of the same blackish tint ; length 241 x 1-73 inch." {Ramsay, 

 P.L.S., N.S. W., Vol. vii., p. 50.) 



Hal. Victoria. {Ramsay.) 



Family TIMELIID^. 

 Sub-Family TIMELIINJE. 

 Genus AMYTIS, Lesson. 



3. AMYTIS STRIATUS, Gould. 



Striated Wren. 



Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 199, p. 335. -2C. y^. 



This bird is an inhabitant of the large open grass plains and 

 scrubby portions of the back country of New South Wales, and 

 the interior of Australia. A nest of this bird in the Australian 

 Museum Collection, taken from a tussock of " porcupine grass '' 



