146 TIMELIIN^. 



wholly of grasses loosely thrown together without being interwoven 

 more than is necessary to keep them in their place ; the structure 

 would hardly bear removal ; the lining is of hair or fur of the 

 " Rabbit-rat " Lagorchestes, it is five inches in diameter by three 

 and a-quarter across outside, with no hood over the opening ; the 

 structure was placed on its side among the twigs of a small shrub 

 with grass growing through its branches near the ground and 

 hidden by the grass. The eggs are of a dull olive-brown, of a 

 nearly uniform bronze tint, usually without markings, one specimen 

 has an indistinct ring of minute dots on the larger end forming 

 a patch of a darker shade, the eggs are three or four in 

 number, length 0-78 x 0-59 inch ; 0-78 x 0-58 inch; 0-79 x 0-58 

 inch." Dobr. Mus. {Ramsay, P.L.S., HT.S. W., Vol. vii., p. 49.) 



Sab. New South "Wales, Interior, Victoria arid South Australia, 

 West and South- West Australia. {Ramsay.) 



Genus MEGALUKUS, Horsfield. 



h. MEGALURTJS GRAMINEUS, Gould. 



Little Grass Bird. 



QouU, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 245, p. 400. 



This little bird was at one time very common in the vicinity of 

 Melbourne, frequenting and breeding freely in the tufts of rushes 

 that skirt the edges of the sheets of water in the Government 

 Domain, Botanical Gardens, and the southern portion of the 

 Albert Park lake, also in the Melaleuca scrub that formerly 

 clothed the sides of the Lower Yarra. The site chosen for the 

 nest is somewhat varied, I have usually taken it from the 

 bottom of a clump of long rushes within eight inches of the water 

 but not unfrequently in the upright pronged fork of a Melaleuca, 

 about five feet from the ground, when growing in wet and swampy 

 localities. 

 J-2 



