PYRRHOL/EMUS. 
145 
placed upon a strong framework of twigs, and neatly lined with 
grass, hair, ifcc. T have frequently found them among the dead 
leafy tops of a fallen Eucalyptus which has been left by the wood¬ 
cutters when clearing a piece of new ground. The eggs of this 
bird are usually three, but sometimes four in number, from six to 
seven lines long by live broad, beautifully white, some spotted, 
and others irregularly marked with bright deep reddish-brown at 
the larger end, where in some the spots form an indistinct zone. 
In other specimens the spots are crowded at the top and very 
sparingly sprinkled on the other parts of the egg. These 
birds easily betray the position of their nest or young by their 
anxiety .and attempts to draw one from the spot by feigning 
broken wings and by lying struggling upon 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, they are plentiful.” ( Ramsay, Ibis, 
1863, Yol. v., p. 178.) 
I have found as many as twenty nests of this species in a day 
among low ferns (Pteris aquilina) growing near the mouth of the 
Yarra in Victoria. Measurements of two sets of eggs are as 
follows length No. 1 (A) 0-65 x 0-52 inch ; (B) 0 67 x 0-5 inch ; 
(C) 0-68 x 0-49 inch. No. 2 (D) 0-66 x 0-33 inch ; (E) 0'63 x 0-43 
inch ; (F) 0 61 x 0-43 inch. 
Halt. Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers 
Districts, New South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South 
Australia, West and South-West Australia, (Ramsay.) 
% 
Genus PYRRHOL^MUS, Gould. 
PYRRITOLiEMUS BRUNNEUS, Gould. 
Red-throat. 
Gould, llandbh. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 235, p. 384. 
This is a remarkable species and peculiar in the colour of its 
e 88 s > n est is very similar to that of a Malurus, it is composed 
J 
