POMATOSTOMUS. 155 



situations are placed nearly upright, but when in the latter upon 

 their sides, being built of course to suit the boughs in which they 

 are placed. Several nests may be found within a few yards of 

 each other in the same clump of trees with birds sitting in each of 

 them. The number of eggs in a nest varies from five to ten. My 

 brother Mr. James Ramsay, informs me that he has taken no less 

 than fourteen from one nest, and in these cases believes them to 

 be the joint property of several birds ; the usual number however 

 is five, which are either much elongated or rounded in form, and 

 not unfrequently have the ends of equal thickness ; the medium 

 size is one inch in length by nine lines in breadth. The ground 

 colour is brownish, yellowish, or purplish-buff covered with a most 

 peculiar network of veins and hair-lines running in various 

 directions, both across and round the surface ; these lines are of a 

 dark purplish-brown. The colouring matter has the peculiarity of 

 being easily rubbed off." {Ramsay, Proc. Phil. Soc, Sydney, 1865, 

 p. 316, pi. i., fig. 1.) 



A set in the Australian Museum Collection measures as follows: 

 length (A) 1-03 x 0-73 inch ; (B) 1-05 x 0-73 inch ; (0) 1-04 x 

 0-76 inch ; (D) 1-04 x 0-73 inch ; (E) 1-07 x 0-75 inch. 



I found this species breeding in great numbers on the Bell and 

 Macquarie B,ivers during August 1887. 



Hob. Gulf of Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay, Port DenisoU) 

 Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, 

 New South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia. 

 {Ramsay.) 



"i-^- POMATOSTOMUS RUBECULUS, Gould. 



Eed-breasted Pomatostomus. 

 Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust , Vol. i., sp. 293, p. 481. 



" Nest flask-shaped, of thin twigs and sticks interwoven, lined 

 with fine grasses, shreds of bark and sometimes a few feathers ; it 

 is placed at the end of some bushy branch or among thick upright 

 twigs, and is very similar to that of P. temporalis as described by 



