148 TIMELIINa!. 



brown thickly freckled all over with markings of a darker tint, 

 but particularly towards the larger end ; specimens in my own 

 collection taken near Hobart in August 1882 measure as follows : 

 Length (A) 0'85 X 0-64 inch; (B) 0-87 x 0-63; (0) 0-85 x 0-67 inch. 



Four eggs in Dr. James C. Cox's Collection give the following 

 measurements :— Length (A) 0-84 x 0-63 inch ; (B) 0-89 x 0-65 

 inch ; (C) 0-85 x 0-67 inch ; (D) 0-87 x 0-62 inch. 



Hah. Tasmania. 



'^ CALAMANTHUS CAMPESTRIS, GouU. 



Field Calamanthus. 

 Gould, Handhk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 238, p. 389. 



This species is found breeding in the neighbourhood of 

 Melbourne, and its nest was one of the first taken by me during 

 my early collecting days. It is without exception the first of 

 all birds to commence breeding in Victoria, starting to build before 

 the winter has commenced, and rearing its young through the 

 coldest months of the year. June and July are the principal 

 months for obtaining the eggs of this species and I have known 

 them taken as early as the 24th of May ; on the 17th of June 

 1880, I found four nests of this species each containing three fresh 

 eggs, which is the usual number laid by this bird for a sitting. 

 The situation chosen for the nest is somewhat varied, sometimes 

 being placed underneath a tuft of rank grass but more often have 

 I found it artfully concealed at the bottom of a low, stunted, thick 

 shrub growing in wet and swampy ground at the mouth of the 

 Yarra. The nest is rounded in form, composed of grasses, and 

 lined with feathers, and usually one or two projecting from the 

 entrance, the nests found at the mouth of the Yarra were all 

 composed exteriorly of an aquatic weed ; the bird at all times sits 

 very close, and it is only when the bush is pulled open that the 

 bird will leave it, which is the easiest way of finding the nest of 

 this species. On one occasion, when the nest was built in the 



