THE GEELOIfa NATURALIST. 
5 
and the exact locality, scrub adjacent to the Olinda Creek, where I 
found the happy family, fully fledged, swelling out their nest, with 
their handsome yellow-breasted parent in attendance. There was 
an extra solicitous tone in his sweet voice, especially when I 
•commenced to handle and examine the youngsters. On such clear 
evidence then I am content to expunge Pachycephala rufogularis 
from my list, seeing it is the youthful P. gutturalis. 
However in justice to Dr Ramsay, 1 find he states in " Notes 
and Eeferences " to his " Tabular List," that, " P. gilberti is a good 
«pecies, but P. rufogularis is very doubtful. Specimens in the 
British Museum do not appear to belong to either species, although 
«upposed to be P. rufogularis (Gould)." 
PACHYCEPHALA. OCCIDENTALIS (Ramsay). 
WESTERN THICKHEAD. 
PmuRE.— Gould : Bds. of Aust., foL, Vol. II, pi. 64. 
Reference.— Cat. Bds., Brit. Mus., Vol. YIII, p. 193. 
Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — 
Gould : Bds. of Aut^t., (1848) ; also Hdbk., Vol. I, p. 
208 (1865.) 
Campbell : Proc. Roy. Soc, Victoria, Vol. (1890.) 
Geographical Distribution. — Western Australia. 
Nest. — The usual cup- shaped form, firmly woven of grass and 
the soft leaves apparently plucked when green of plants, and lined 
inside with fine grass. Dimensions, over all about 3^ inches by 
2f inches in depth. Egg cavity 2\ inches across by 1^ inches 
deep. 
Eggs. — Clutch, 2, probably 3 occasionally; long in shape with 
both ends nearly alike ; texture of shell, fine, with a trace of gloss 
upon the surface; color, light yellowish-white of a darker shade 
about the upper quarter where are spots of umber and dull grey, 
the latter appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Some 
examples have the ground color more yellowish as in those of the 
White-throated Thickhead (P. gutturalis,) with a greater number 
of markings distributed over the surface. Dimensions in inches of 
clutch— (1) -98 X -63 ; (2) 97 x '63. Odd examples— (Long) 
1-01 X -66 ; (short) 76 x 64. 
Obskrvations. — In Western Australia in the acacia scrubs 
protected by the beautiful leafed Eucalypt {E. calophylla,) I fre- 
quently observed this lovely bird whose golden breast vied in color 
with the acacia's bloom. rhe male bird stands a perfect lover as 
he calls " sweet " to his grey-colored mate in another tree. She 
answers lovingly in identical note, " sweet." 
Gould regarded the Western and Eastern White-throated 
Thickheads as possibly identical, while Dr Ramsay in his "Remarks " 
on his "Tabular List," states: — 
"Finding it necessary to separate the Yellow-breasted 
Pachycephala of Western Australia from that of N.S. Wales, I 
