CHLAMTDODEEA. 179 



" The nest is an open structure usually placed in a low tree, and is 

 saucer or bowl-shaped, composed of sticks, and lined with grass, 

 about five inches inside diameter by three deep, and four inches 

 high. It is very rarely indeed that C. maculata, is found near 

 the coast, although on one occasion Dr. Ramsay procured an egg 

 on Ash Island, near Hexham, on the Hunter River, about ten 

 miles from the sea coast. This was in 1861, and probably the 

 first time that the egg had been found, although this fact appears 

 to have escaped the Doctor's memory, since he described another 

 egg of the same species thirteen years afterwards — (P.Z.S., 1874, 

 p. 605), when Mr. J. B. White was credited with having obtained 

 the first specimen. I give Dr. Ramsay's description, which is 

 that of the typical egg, and of the most usual variety found : — 



" ' In form elongate, tapering ; shell thin and delicate, somewhat 

 shining and smooth. Ground colour of a delicate greenish-white 

 tint, surrounded with narrow, wavy, twisted, irregular, thread-like 

 lines of brown, dark umber, light umber-brown, and a few blackish- 

 brown, which cross and recross each other, forming an irregular 

 network round the centre and thicker end ; towards the thinner 

 end they are not so closely interwoven, and light brown lines 

 appear as if beneath the surface of the shell, also a few black 

 irregular shaped linear markings, much broader than the rest, 

 show conspicuously against the pale greenish-white ground ; and 

 here and there, over the whole surface, are scattered ill-shapen 

 figures resembling two's, three's and five's (2, 3, 5) of various tints 

 of colour. Length 1'5 inch ; breadth, 1 inch.' 



"In 1875, Mr. James Ramsay obtained several specimens of 

 both birds and eggs at Tyndarie ; and others were received from 

 the Clarence River district. Since then the eggs have become 

 less rare, and are to be found in most collections formed in the 

 interior. The eggs of C. maculata vary considerably in the extent 

 of their markings, and sometimes in the tints of colouring ; one I 

 have from the Dawson River district is slightly smaller than usual, 

 and has the ground colour a faint greenish-grey, covered all over 

 with a fine network of light brownish linear markings, closer 

 together near the thicker end ; others have their markings confined 



