166 PLOCEID^. 



plentifully in the extensive grass beds of the Clarence and Richmond 



River Districts, also at Maryborough, Queensland. The nest is 



a large structure, in shape like a flask or bottle placed on its side, 



and the entrance which is about an inch and a-half wide, is 



situated at the end of a long neck, the whole being about fourteen 



inches in length by six inches in diameter at its widest part. It 



is usually built near the top of some bushy shrub, or in tangled 



masses of vines, and composed of grasses and the leaves of reeds, 



with fine stems of plants ( Goodenia or Lobelia, according to the 



district its owner frequents), being lined with finer materials — 



the downy tops of reeds and flags, and occasionally a few feathers. 



It closely resembles the nest of Neochima jyhaeton, which I have 



received from Port Denison, and like that is often found placed 



among the stifi' leaves of a grass-like plant growing upon the sides 



of the trees in and about the edges of the scrubs. The eggs are 



four or five in number, slightly larger than those of JUgintha 



temporalis, of a dead limy- white colour ; a set taken at lindah, on 



the Mary River, Queensland, measure as follows : — length 0-64 x 



0-48 inch ; 0-65 x 0-48 inch ; 067 x 0-5 inch ; two other eggs from 



the same nest are slightly smaller." [Ramsay, Ibis, 1868, p. 232.) 



Hab. Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Wide 

 Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New 

 South Wales. {Ramsay.) 



Genus POEPHILA, Gould. 



- S-. POEPHILA CINCTA, Gould. 



Banded Grass-flnoh. 

 Gould, Jlandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 264, p. 425. 



" This species was formerly abundant in the neighbourhood of 

 Rockhampton, but during my visit to those parts in 1869-70, not 

 a specimen could be found, the bird having been entirely 

 exterminated by the " trappers," for the European markets. It 



