THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
blackish with whitish shaft-streaks ; chin whitish ; throat, lower-cheeks, and fore¬ 
neck drab-grey ; breast and upper abdomen white with black margins to the 
feathers ; lower abdomen, sides of body and vent similar but strongly tinged with 
ochreous-brown ; thighs dusky-brown ; under tail-coverts buffv-wliite with twin 
spots of black ; axillaries and under wing-coverts buffy-white with dark spots 
becoming buff on the greater series of the latter; under-surface of flight-quills 
hair-brown with a patch of buff ; lower aspect of tail similar to its upper-surface 
but paler. Total length 152 mm. ; eulmen 13, wing 90, tail 59, tarsus 21. Figured. 
Collected at Callion, West Australia, and is the type of C. e. neositla. 
Adult female. Top of head, nape and hind-neck dark ash-grey; lores and superciliary 
streak chestnut with whitish shaft streaks to the feathers, becoming white on the 
sides of the crown ; feathers in front of the eye black and bristly in texture; ear- 
coverts blackish with white shaft-streaks ; sides of neck, mantle, back, rump, 
scapulars and upper wing-coverts pale bronze-brown; bastard-wing and primary- 
coverts blackish; flight-quills also blackish, becoming paler on the apical portion 
of the primaries and drab-grey on the tips of the secondaries, with a band of buff 
which commences on the second primary ; upper tail-coverts and tail drab-grey 
with a blackish subterminal band on the outer feathers of the latter, w T hicli is only 
slightly indicated on the middle feathers ; chin, throat, lower cheeks, and throat 
huffy-white tinged with chestnut; fore-neck chestnut with white centres to the 
feathers ; upper breast and sides of upper breast drab-grey' with white centres to the 
feathers ; lower breast and sides of lower breast white with black margins to the 
feathers ; abdomen and flanks white streaked with black and broadly margined 
with ochreous-brown ; thighs dusky ; under tail-coverts buffy-white with twin 
spots of black ; axillaries and lesser under wing-coverts spotted with dark brown, 
the larger series of the latter buff, like the inner webs of the flight-quills, remainder 
of quill-lining hair-brown; lower aspect of tail similar to its upper-surface but 
paler, and showing obsolete cross-bars. Bill black, cy’es brown, feet and legs lead- 
grey. Total length 138 mm. ; eulmen 11, wing 86, tail 55, tarsus 19. Figured. 
Collected near Lake Way, East Murchison, West Australia, on the 25th of August, 
1909. 
Eggs. Two to three eggs form the clutch. A clutch of three taken at Borewell, East 
Murchison, Western Australia, on the 3rd of September, 1909, is of a pinkish-white 
ground-colour, spotted and speckled nearly all over with markings of pinkish-red 
and purplish-red. Swollen ovals in shape ; surface of shell fine and slightly glossy. 
21-22 mm. by 15-16. 
Nest. Placed in hollow limb or trunk of a tree, and composed of fur, hair, and vegetable 
down, strips of soft bark, and dried grasses. The nest containing the clutch of 
eggs under notice was situated in the hollow trunk of a tree, and within three 
feet of the ground. 
Breeding-months. September, October and November. 
Man y years ago the Melbourne Institution presented a series of birds to 
the Asiatic Society through the intervention of Edward Blyth, the Curator 
of the Museum of that Society at Calcutta. Blyth was one of the great British 
ornithologists of his age and never missed an opportunity of describing new 
species from any material he received from different parts of the world. Ho 
had a keen appreciation for detail, a prodigious memory and a lot of experience; 
his main lack was specimens. He named a few Australian birds, but these 
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