THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
back, wings, and tail bronze-brown, rump and upper tail-coverts more or less tinged 
with cinnamon ; flight-quills dark liair-brown on the inner webs with ochreous 
margins on the secondaries ; tail also dark liair-brown ; lores inclining to whitish; 
chin and throat white with dark hair-like tips to some of the feathers; fore-neck, 
sides of neck, sides of face, and upper breast pale bronze-brown; sides of bodv 
similar but much paler ; lower breast and abdomen cream-white; flanks, thighs, 
and under tail-coverts cinnamon; axillaries white tinged with yellow; under 
wing-coverts pale cinnamon ; under-surface of flight-quills glossy hair-brown with 
a yellowish tinge ; lower aspect of tail similar. Eyes brown. Total length 202 mm.; 
culmen 15, wing 99, tail 70, tarsus 28. Figured. Collected at Castlemaine, Victoria, 
in October 1896. 
Nest. Cup-shaped. Composed of stick, twigs, and bark lined with dried grass, rootlets, 
etc. Outside measurements 4J inches by 3 deep, inside 3 by 2. 
Eggs. Clutch three to four. White to bluish-white, blotched with sepia to black markings. 
27-28 mm. by 22. 
Eggs. Clutch two to four, swollen ovals in shape, ground-colour white (possessing a faint 
tinge of blue in many cases), spotted and blotched with blackish markings, and 
chiefly confined to the larger end of each egg. Surface of shell fine and smooth and 
rather glossy. The clutch measures 25-26 mm. by 21. 
Nest resembles in many respects that of the common CoUuricincla harmonica. Rather 
deep cup-shaped structure, composed of strips of bark and leaves, etc., and lined 
with dry grass, rootlets. Frequently hairy caterpillars are found in the nest. Often 
placed near the ground in a. mass of upright suckers, or in the thick fork of a tree, 
or hollow stump. Height of nest varies from 3 feet to 20 feet or more from ground. 
Dimensions of nest overall, 4| to 5| inches, up to 4 inches in depth. The egg cavity 
measures 3 to 3J inches across by 2 to 2£ inches deep. 
Breeding-season. July to January, but on to March in the north. 
This is one of the few birds painted by Lewin and his figure is of a female, 
but he gives the first field-note : “ Rocks ; frequents barren scrubby places. 
Has a jerk in its walking motion, at the same time erecting its crest like the 
cockatoo.” 
Vigors and Horsfield described as a new species Falcunculus gutturalis, 
observing ‘“is in very indifferent condition,” and “ was procured at Kent’s 
Group, December, 1803.” There has been some confusion here as the bird 
does not occur on that group. 
Gould’s notes are very good and are here reproduced: “ This very 
singular bird possesses an extremely wide range of habitat, being dispersed 
over the whole of the southern portion of Australia from east to west. It has 
not yet been discovered in Tasmania or in any of the islands in Bass’s Straits, 
neither has the extent of its range northwards been ascertained. It is, I 
believe, everywhere a stationary species, but although its distribution is so 
general, it is nowhere very plentiful. From what I observed of it, it appeared 
to give a decided preference to the naked sterile crowns of hills and open bare 
glades in the forests, and I should say that its presence is indicative of a poor 
20 
