14 
RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
spotted and dotted with irregular shaped markings of different 
shades of umber and slaty-brown, underlying blotches of slaty- 
grey appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Length 
1-2 x 0-82 inch. In the colour and disposition of its markings, 
it resembles some varieties of the eggs of Sittella chrysopterci , and 
in shape and size that of the egg of Graucalus hyperleucus, but 
is entirely free from the asparagus-green ground colour which 
predominates in the eggs of the latter genus. This is the only 
occasion I have known of the nest and egg of this species having 
been taken. 
The Northern and Eastern portions of the Australian Continent 
constitutes the habitat of this species. 
Chibia bracteata, Goulcl. Spangled Drongo-Shrike. 
Gould , Handbk. Bds. Austr., Yol. i., sp. 132, p. 235. 
This migratory species is rather freely dispersed over the greater 
portions of Northern and Eastern Australia, it arrives at Cape 
York about the middle of April, and the Herbert River in May. 
Mr. C. C. L. Talbot found it breeding on Collaroy Station, near 
Broad Sound, Queensland, on the 10th of October, 1882. The 
nests in every instance were open and slightly cup-shaped 
structures, composed entirely of long stems of a climbing plant 
and fibrous roots, and were attached to the fine leafy twigs at 
the extremities of the branches of a dwarf white gum, at an 
altitude of twenty feet from the ground. The nests were placed 
in trees about fifty yards apart, and in the twelve nests examined 
each of them contained three eggs for a sitting ; in some the eggs 
were perfectly fresh, in others "partly incubated, but none were 
found containing young ones. The eggs are oval in form, 
somewhat pointed at one end, and are of a very pale purplish- 
grey ground colour, with numerous scratches and irregular shaped 
markings of light reddish-purple, scattered over the entire surface 
of the shell, many of which are nearly obsolete. All the markings 
have a faded and washed out appearance, and the shell is dull 
and lustreless. A set measures, length (A) 1-2 x 0*83 inch • 
(B) 118 x 0-83 inch * (C) 1*23 x 0*85 inch. 
Bathilda rufioauda, Gould . Bed-tailed Finch. 
Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Yol. i., sp. 254, p. 412. 
This pi etty little I inch, although by no means common, has a 
most extensive range of habitat, being found throughout Northern, 
North-eastern and North-western Australia, it is also very 
sparingly dispersed over the Northern and Interior portions of 
New South ales, but in the latter districts it is considered a 
rare species, being very seldom obtained ; a small flock was seen 
near Lithgow in the Blue Mountains last winter, one of which, an 
