WHITE-FRONTED CHAT. 
breast, abdomen, thighs, and under tail-coverts white. Eyes brown, bill and feet 
grey. Collected at Glenferrie, Victoria, on the 14th of September, 1910. 
Nest. Cup-shaped. Placed in a low bush or long grass. Composed of twigs and fine 
rootlets and lined with horse hair. Outside measurements 2| inches deep by 4 
wide. Inside 1-|- inches deep by 2 wide. 
Eggs. Clutch, three to four. White with reddish-brown spots on the larger end. 18-19 
mm. by 14-15. 
Breeding- season. July to December, but eggs have been taken in other months. 
Although not the describer, Gould gave the first notes concerning this 
species, writing : “ This species appears to range over the whole of the southern 
portion of the Australian continent, for I have specimens in my collection 
which were killed at Swan River, in South Australia, and in New South Wales. 
It does not inhabit Tasmania, but is very common, and breeds on some of 
the islands in Bass’s Straits. It is a most sprightly and active little bird, 
particularly the male, whose white throat and banded chest render him much 
more conspicuous than the sombre-coloured female. As the structure of its 
toes and lengthened tertiaries would lead us to expect, its natural province 
is the ground, to which it habitually resorts, and decidedly evinces a preference 
to spots of a sterile and barren character. The male frequently perches either 
on the summit of a stone, or on the extremitv of a dead and leafless branch. 
It is rather shy in its disposition, and when disturbed flies off with considerable 
rapidity to the distance of two or three hundred yards before it alights again.” 
Ramsay later added : “ These birds arrive in New South "Wales about 
«/ 
the beginning of September and October. In the latter month they commence 
building on open lands studded with low bushes. . . . These birds readily 
betray the position of their nests or young by their anxiety and attempts to 
draw one from the spot by feigning broken wings, and by lying struggling on 
the ground as if in a fit. They have two broods (and perhaps more) in the 
year, after which the young accompany the parent birds to feed generally 
on the salt marshy grounds near the water’s edge. About Botany and the 
Parramatta River, upon the borders of the Hexham swamps, etc., they are 
plentiful. They evince a decided preference for open half-cleared patches of 
land. I never found, more than four or six together, doubtless the offspring 
of one pair ; still it is not unusual to find them in pairs only. As far as I am 
aware, they have but one very plaintive note, which is emitted chiefly while 
flying or when the nest is approached.” 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin has sent me the following note from Cobbora, New 
South Wales : “ Not by any means common in this district, but just a few 
small flocks may turn up at any time, a few remaining to breed in the spring, 
but in 1914 I flushed a female from her nest and eggs in the middle of June. 
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