GROUND-FREQUENTING BIRDS 
45 
posed of sticks, twigs, dead leaves, and mosses. Usually placed in a 
mass of lawyer vines, in a staghorn or bird’s-nest fern growing on a 
tree or on a log. 
egg. Pure white. Breeding-season: May to August or November. 
12. Log-runner Orthonyx temmincki Ranzani—12A. Female 
temmincki-C. J. Temminck (1778-1858), Dutch ornithologist. 
distribution. South-eastern Queensland and north-eastern New 
South Wales. 
notes. Also called Spinetail and Spine-tailed Log-runner. Inhabits 
the dense scrubs and brushes; usually in pairs or family parties; it is 
very noisy, but possesses a pretty song, a series of “Quicks”, usually 
uttered in an apparently excited manner. Its food consists of insects, 
chiefly beetles and small land snails and slugs, collected by scratching 
among the fallen leaves and other debris. It uses both legs and tail— 
the tail with a “sideway” action, its spine-like tips making a perfect 
rake. 
nest A dome-shaped structure with an entrance at the side, com¬ 
posed of sticks; lined with mosses; built on or near the ground. 
eggs. Two, pure white. Breeding-season: April to July. 
13. Fern-wren Oreoscopus guttuTalis De Vis 
Or'-e-o-scop'-us-Gk, oros, oreos, mountain: gut-tur-d'-lis- L., gutturalis, 
throated. 
distribution. Northern Queensland (Herbcrton Range to Cairns). 
motes Inhabits the dense scrubs of the mountain ranges; is local, 
nreferring damp places in the scrub, where, if one stands quiet for a 
while one is almost sure to hear its low plaintive call, or hear it 
scratching among the debris and fallen leaves. Its food consists chiefly 
of nsccts procured among ferns, lichens, and mosses, or underneath 
the partly stripped-off bark of some fallen giant of the scrub. 
mpst A large, dome-shaped structure with an entrance at the side, 
NEST ‘ 1 nf f res h green mosses and fine black fern-stems. Built on the 
ar p.r.ly bail, inlo a hole in a bank of a gully. 
eggs. Two, pure white. Breeding-season: extends from July to 
February. 
14. Rock-warbler Origma rubricata Latham 
Origma- Gk, orygma, a hollow, cave: ru-bri-cd’-ia-L., rubricatus, 
reddened. entral eastern New South Wales (Hawkesbury 
DISTRIB UTium. 
sandstone area). Cataract .bird, Cave-bird, Rock Robin, and Rock 
notes. Also irSj frequenting chiefly rocky ravines and 
Swallow. usu f /f om water. It is an active bird, moving with rapidity 
