THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
lores, feathers round the eye, and ear-coverts blackish ; throat and lower cheeks 
white ; fore-neck, breast, and middle of abdomen chestnut ; sides of body, thighs, 
vent and under tail-coverts dark dusky-brown ; axillaries and under wing-coverts 
rust-brown ; under-surface of flight- quills cinnamon for the greater part, the 
remainder hair-brown ; lower aspect of tail similar to its upper-surface. Eyes 
brown, feet and tarsi dull black. Bill, upper mandible tip and tomium of lower 
mandible black ; basal half of culmen greyish-white, balance of lower mandible 
fleshy-white. Total length 250 mm. ; culmen 27, wing 107, tail 105, tarsus 31. 
Figured. Collected at Point Torment, West Kimberley, North-west Australia, 
on the 11th of February, 1911. 
Adult female. From the same locality similar. 
Fledgeling. Crown of head, back, wings and tail dark smoke-brown with paler edges to 
some of the upper wing-coverts and flight- quills, tips of outer tail-feathers broadly 
marked with cream-white ; a line of cream-white from the nostrils, above the 
lores, over the eye and along the sides of the crown ; throat, breast, and abdomen 
cream-buff ; thighs and under tail-coverts smoke-brown ; lower aspect of tail 
similar to its upper-surface. Eyes deep brown, bill dark horn, base of lower mandible 
yellow, feet and legs light grev. Collected in East Murchison on the 30th September, 
1909. 
Nest. Dome-shaped, constructed of twigs roughly put together, then a layer of paper- 
bark and grass ; lined with very fine soft shreds of paper-bark in which the eggs 
were buried. Entrance in the outer end of the nest (which was placed in a 
fork at the end of a thin limb) and was hooded over with twigs and grass. 
Outside measurements 14 inches long by 13 wide and 14 deep. Inside 6 by 5 by 
4 inches. The hood was 9 inches long, which made the nest 23 inches over all. 
(In Victoria the subspecies sometimes hues its nest with horse-dung.) 
Eggs. Clutch 3. Ground-colour dark, covered all over with hair-like markings of dark 
brown. 27-30 mm. by 19-20. 
Breeding-season. August to December. 
Gould wrote: “This species inhabits New T South Wales, particularly those 
districts where Angophorai and Eucalypti abound ; it is gregarious in its 
habits, and is exceedingly noisy and garrulous. Commencing with the 
branches nearest the ground, it gradually ascends, in a succession of leaps, 
to the very tops of the trees, whence, with elevated tail, it peers down, and 
continually utters its peculiar chattering cry ; it is frequently to be seen on 
the ground, but on the slightest alarm it resorts to the trees, and ascends 
them in the manner described. Its powers of flight are not very great, and 
appear to be only employed to convey it from the top of one tree to another, 
the whole troop following one after the other. The situation of the nest is 
somewhat varied ; on the Eucalypti it is mostly built at the extremity of 
the branch ; it is of a large size, and very much resembles that of the Magpie 
of Europe, being of a completely domed form, outwardly composed of small 
long twigs about the size of a thorn, crossing each other, and but very slightly 
interwoven ; the entrance is in the form of a spout, about half the length of 
a man’s arm, and the twigs are placed in such a manner that the points incline 
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