2SO BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
The food of this species consists entirely of ground- 
dwelling insects. Very rarely, indeed, does the bird 
fly up into a tree when flushed, but it can run at 
considerable speed along the ground. 
The only note of the Spotted Ground-thrush is a 
long whistle, low but clear ; I have not heard it save 
in the breeding-season, when mated birds are calling 
to each other. 
August 22nd is the earliest record I have of a nest 
with eggs; that was in 1891, near Marcus. I ob- 
served a nest in the same district with young on 
October 31st in the same year. The nest is a loose, 
open structure of strips of gum bark and leaves, 
placed on the ground in the shelter of a fallen log. 
Two is the invariable clutch of eggs : they are 
white, thickly covered with spots, mostly small, of 
brown and lilac. The down on the young is sooty 
black. To judge from the number of individuals seen 
in family groups in the autumn, I think it probable 
that two broods are hatched in the season. 
GEELONG GROUND-WREN 
Hylacola pyrrhopygia belcheri 
The Hylacolas are desert-loving birds, and, except 
for a single specimen recorded from Lethbridge and 
another from Dandenong, were not known until 
recently to inhabit any part of Victoria south of the 
Dividing Range. 
In October, 1910, with my friend Mr. R. P. 
