70 RUDOLF SÖDERBERG, STUDIES OF THE BIRDS IN NORTH WEST AUSTRALIA. 
quite exposed position on a thick broken branch. A native, who was my guide in 
the bush, was the first to discover the brooding bird. It was extremely difficult to 
see it, though it lay quite exposed. After some efforts I succeeded in discovering it 
by aid of my opera glass. The colour and ornamentation of the plumage agree in 
an extraordinarily perfect way with that of the branch. The same cracks that the 
dry branch had got seemed to be reproduced in the birds feathers by the black 
stripes that ran along the feathers. It lay with its body along the branch, and its 
position was peculiar inasmuch as its head had been turned sideways and upwards 
and the bright golden eyes were shut. On account of this the bird became still 
more difficult to distinguish from the branch. When I let the black man approach; 
I could not observe the least motion in the bird, before it was very nearly caught. 
There were two white eggs in the nest, which was built of fine twigs with straw in- 
side it. The broodings bird was a male. 
Fam. Coraciide. 
Eurystomus pacificus LATH. 
Math; ”handl. n:r 381; 8 FFI ad, 2909 ad. Nooncanbah, Hitzroy r. </12, "/19, S/ta, "4/15 WS Noverna 
22/ 121910; moult;; Il Ag JUvsgol 8: juv. ibid. Yai aol911;imoult. 
Variants. — Specimen no. 3 (3 ad.) has blue splashes on the breast and down- - 
wards, such splashes can also be traced in specimen no. 6 (Ss ad.). The female has the 
blue on the throat less developed than the male. 
Juvenals. — The juvenals quite alike. Both of them are in advanced 
moulting. Their plumage differs from that of the adults in being without cobalt 
and purple-blue on the throat; it also has a lighter blue at the lower parts (lower 
part of the breast and the belly) but darker on the back. The bill is blackish 
gray. The feet are red. These juvenals are going through their first moulting, but 
they have not yet got any of the marks of the adult. It takes more than one, 
probably two years, before the adult plumage is obtained. 
Moulting. — In specimen Y juv. there are pins in the wing. The first wing- 
feather in each wing is grown out with the sheath still retained at the base. There 
are sheaths in the bigger wing-coverts too. The dress new and fully-moulted. Many 
specimens have remarkably worn feathers. 
Moulting-season — comes in Dec., Jan. The moulting of the juvenals indi- 
cates that they are hatched during the year before. 
The dollarbird was general at Nooncanbah (Fitzroy river) but not round Derby, 
nor at Meda or Beagle bay or Sunday Island. At Mowla Downs, however, I met 
with a few specimens in the month of Dec. 
