hearer to shut his eyes to the neighbouring foliage, to fancy himself surrounded by London Grimalkins of 
house-top celebrity/’ 
In 1877 Dr. Ramsay described a nest and eggs supposed to belong to the Cat-bird, hut he entertained 
some doubt as to their authenticity, and Mr. North, who reproduced the description in his ‘ Nests and Eggs 
of Australian Birds,’ evidently shared the misgivings of Dr. Ramsay. 
Mr. North writes: — “For an opportunity of examining an authentic nest and egg of the New 
South Wales Cat-bird, AElurcedus viridis, I am indebted to Mr. W. J. Grime, a most enthusiastic and 
persevering oologist, who recently procured two nests of this species on the Tweed River, and sent the 
following notes relative to the taking of them : — 
“ * On the 4th of October, 1890, I was out looking for nests, accompanied by a hoy. I left him for a little 
while to go further in the scrub, and on my return he informed me he had found a Cat-bird’s nest with two 
eggs, one of which he showed me, the other one he broke when descending from the tree. I went with him 
to the nest and found the old birds very savage, flying at us, and fluttering along the ground. The nest was 
built in a th ree-pronged fork of a tree, about fourteen feet from the ground. The tree was only four inches in 
diameter, and was in a jungle or light scrub, about fifty yards from the edge of the open country. I felled 
the tree and secured the nest, of the authenticity of which there is no doubt, as the old birds strongly 
objected to my taking it. The eggs had been sat on for a few days and were partially incubated.’ 
“ In a subsequent letter dated November the 8th, Mr. Grime writes ; — ‘ To-day I found another Cat-bird’s 
nest and drove the parent bird off it myself. I thought I had more eggs, as the Cat-bird would not leave 
the nest until fairly shaken out, hut when I examined the nest I found two young birds in it, apparently 
just hatched a couple of days.’ 
“The nest of /Elurcedus viridis is a beautiful structure, being howl-shaped and composed exteriorly of long 
twigs, entwined around the large broad leaves of Ptarietia argyrodendron and other broad-leaved trees, some 
of the leaves measuring eleven inches in length by four inches in breadth. The leaves appear to have been 
picked when green, so beautifully do they fit the rounded form of the nest, one side of which is almost 
hidden by them. The interior of the nest is lined entirely with fine twigs. The nest of JElurcedtts viridis 
is similar to that of AE. maculosus , hut larger, and both of them can be readily distinguished from those of 
any other Australian bird by the peculiarity of having large broad leaves used in the construction of the 
exterior portion of the nest. 
“The eggs of AE. viridis are two in number for a sitting, oval in form, being hut slightly compressed at the 
smaller end, of a uniform creamy-white, very faintly tinged with green, the shell being comparatively smooth 
and slightly glossy. Length T66 inch x 1’2 inch.” 
Adult. Above bright grass-green, with a greyish-white patch on the side of the lower neck ; primaries 
slightly shaded externally with bluish, the inner webs of the quills greyish brown ; median and greater 
wing-coverts, as well as the secondaries, tipped with yellowish white ; tail-feathers bright grass-green, 
inclining to greyish black on the inner web, and tipped with white, more largely on the inner w T eb ; head 
and neck green, rather more yellowish than the back, the feathers bluish underneath wiien lifted, the hind 
neck and sides of the neck, as well as the mantle, slightly streaked with minute shaft-lines of huffy white ; 
sides of face dull olive-greenish, including the ear-coverts, which have a dull sort of silvery lustre ; round 
the eye a ring of whitish feathers ; fore part of cheeks, feathers below the eyes and on the malar line, slightly 
spotted with black ; throat dull greyish, slightly washed with olive-green and minutely spotted with white ; 
rest of under surface of body dull olive-greenish, all the feathers mesially streaked with a distinct lanceolate 
spot of white ; centre of the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts uniform yellowish ; under wing-coverts 
whitish, barred across with ashy grey and slightly washed with green, especially on the edge of the wing: 
“ bill light horn-colour; feet whitish ; iris brownish red ” (./. Gould'). Total length 12 inches, culmen T25, 
wing 6 - 35, tail 5, tarsus T95. 
The description is taken from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ and the figures in the Plate 
represent a pair of adult birds, drawn from specimens in the British Museum. 
