AOANTHIZA. 139 



pieces of white spiders' nests. It is warmly lined with feathers, 

 opossum-fur or the silky down from the seed-pods of the native 

 cotton-tree. The nest is suspended to a thin twig at the end of 

 some leafy bough by the top, and the small opening about two 

 inches down the side is neatly covered with a hood, which excludes 

 both the sun and the rain. Some of the nests are without any 

 ornament ; others are decorated with pieces of white paper-bark, 

 or with green and white spiders' nests. Long streamers of 

 bleached seaweed are also often used ; and when the nests are 

 placed in the gullies of the ranges, a beautiful bright green string- 

 like Hypnum is employed. 



We find this species of Acanthiza usually the first to commence 

 breeding. I have taken its eggs in July, but for the most part 

 find them from August to September. They are three in number 

 rather long and of a beautiful pinky-white zoned at the larger 

 end with minute freckles and irregular markings of a light 

 brownish-red, having also a few minute linear dashes of the same 

 colour over the rest of the surface. The zone at the tip of the 

 larger end is extremely characteristic ; a few specimens are found 

 without it, but some which I believe to be the eggs of young birds 

 breeding for the first time, are of a pure white without any 

 markings whatever. The average length is 0'7 inch by 0"5 inch 

 in breadth. This species has two and sometimes three broods 

 in the year, stragglers breeding as late as December and January, 

 and is perhaps more frequently the foster parent of Chalcites 

 plagosus and C. basalis, than any other species." (Ramsa/y,P.Z.S., 

 1866, p. 571, PI. of nest, p. 572;) 



Eggs of this species in the Australian Museum Collection 

 measure as follows :— length (A) 0-62 x 0-47 inch ; (B) 0-67 x 0-47 

 inch ; (0) 0-65 x 0-46 inch. 



Hob. Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers 

 Districts, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. 

 f Ramsay.) 



