148 
TIMELIIN.2E. 
brown thickly freckled all over with markings of a darker tint, 
but particularly towards the larger end ; specimens in my own 
collection taken near Hobart in August 1882 measure as follows : 
Length (A) 0-85 x 0-G4 inch; (B) 0-87 x 0-63; (C) 0-85 x 0-G7 inch. 
Pour eggs in Dr. James C. Cox’s Collection give the following 
measurements :— Length (A) 0 - 84 x 0 - G3 inch : (B) 0'89 x 0 - G5 
inch ; (C) 0-85 x 0-67 inch ; (D) 0-87 x 062 inch. 
Hub. Tasmania. 
CALAMANTHUS CAMPESTRIS, Gould. 
Field Calamantlrus. 
Gould, Ilandble. fids. Aust., Yol. i., sp. 238, p. 389. 
This species is found breeding in the neighbourhood of 
Melbourne, and its nest was one of the first taken by me during 
my early collecting days. It is without exception the first of 
all birds to commence breeding in Victoria, starting to build before 
the winter has commenced, and rearing its young through the 
coldest months of the year. June and July are the principal 
months for obtaining the eggs of this species and I have known 
them taken as early as the 24th of May ; on the 17th of June 
1880, I found four nests of this species each containing three fresh 
eggs, which is the usual number laid by this bird for a sitting. 
The situation chosen for the nest is somewhat varied, sometimes 
being placed underneath a tuft of rank grass but more often have 
I found it artfully concealed at the bottom of a low, stunted, thick 
shrub growing in wet and swampy ground at the mouth of the 
Yarra. The nest is rounded in form, composed of grasses, and 
lined with feathers, and usually one or two projecting from the 
entrance, the nests found at the mouth of the Yarra were all 
composed exteriorly of an aquatic weed ; the bird at all times sits 
very close, and it is only when the bush is pulled open that the 
bird will leave it, which is the easiest way of finding the nest of 
this species. On one occasion, when the nest was built in the 
