CATALOGUE. 
215 
range in that direction. It is everywhere a stationary species. 
During my researches in South Australia, I found it sparingly 
dispersed over the country, in such localities as are suitable to its 
habits, between the great bend of the Murray and Lake Alexandrina ; 
this, therefore, would seem to be the border-line of their range on 
either hand. 
" The Spotted Ground-Thrush gives a decided preference to low 
stony hills and rocky gullies, particularly those covered with scrubs 
and grasses. Its flight is very limited, and this power is rarely 
employed except for the purpose of crossing a gully or passing to 
a neighbouring shrub. It readily eludes pursuit by the facility with 
which it runs over the stony surface, and conceals itself among the 
underwood. When suddenly flushed, it rises with a loud burring 
noise, like the Quail or Partridge. Its short flight is performed by 
a succession of undulations, and is terminated by the bird pitching 
abruptly to the ground almost at right angles. It seldom perches 
on the smaller branches of trees, but may be frequently seen to run 
along the fallen trunks so common in the Australian forests. Its 
note merely consists of a low piping whistle, frequently repeated 
while among the underwood, and by which its presence is often 
indicated. In Hobart Town it is frequently exposed for sale in the 
markets with Bronze-winged Pigeons and Wattle-birds, where it is 
known by the name of Ground Dove, an appellation which has 
doubtless been given both from its habit of running and feeding on 
the ground like the Pigeons, and the circumstance of its flesh being 
very delicate eating : to its excellence in this respect I can bear 
testimony. The pectoral muscles are very largely developed, and 
the body, when plucked, has much the contour of a Quail. The 
duty of incubation is performed in October and the three following 
months, during which period two and often three broods are pro- 
duced. The nest is a slight and rather careless structure, composed 
of leaves and the inner bark of trees, and is of a round and open 
form. It is always placed on the ground, under the shelter of a 
large stone, stump of a tree, or a tuft of grass. The eggs are two, 
and sometimes three, one inch and three lines long, and are white, 
blotched with large marks of olive-brown, particularly at the larger 
end, some of the spots appearing as if on the inner surface of the 
shell. The young, which at two days old are thickly clothed with 
long black down, like the young of the genus Eallus, soon acquire 
the power of running, and at an early age assume the plumage of the 
adult, after which they are subject to no periodical change in their 
