SITTELLA. 241 



A set in the Dobroyde Collection are of a greenish-white ground 

 colour, heavily blotched all over with irregular shaped markings 

 of slaty-black, but more particularly towards the larger end, where 

 they become confluent, together with a few spots of a lighter tint 

 appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Length (A) 0-68 

 X 0-52 inch ; (B) 0-65 x 0-5 inch ; (C) 0-68 x 0-52 inch. Taken 

 at Dobroyde, October 1860. 



Another set in the same collection, taken September 1861, are 

 of a bluish-white ground colour, minutely freckled all over with 

 slaty-grey, and slaty-black markings, with a few faint subsurface 

 blotches of slaty-lilac ; length (A) 0-68 x 0-53 inch ; (B) 0-66 x 

 0-5 inch ; (C) 0-68 x 0-52 inch. 



September and the three following months constitute the 

 breeding season of this species. 



Hah. Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence 

 Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. 

 (Bamsay.) 



^ -(y SITTELLA TENUIROSTRIS, Gould. 

 Gould, Somdbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., p. 610. 



" This is a somewhat doubtful species, and Dr. Hans Gadow, 

 who has presumedly examined the type from Mr. Gould's collection, 

 has made it still more doubtful by placing it as identical with 

 Sittella pileata, Gould ; but on reference to Mr. Gould's Handbook, 

 Vol. i., p. 610, it will be seen that that author considered the 

 bird a variety of S. chrysoptera. As I have specimens agreeing 

 very well with Mr. Gould's description, from the interior provinces 

 obtained by Mr. James Ramsay, I prefer to consider it more 

 nearly allied to iS". chrysoptera than to any other. The length of 

 the bill is 0*7 inch. The nest is a very beautiful structure placed 

 often between the upright forks of a dead branch ; it is very deep, 

 open above, the edges sharp not rounded, and composed of fine 

 shreds of bark, lichens, and cobweb, the outside felted or ' shingled ' 

 with small scales of bark fastened on with cobwebs, and made to 



