POMATOSTOMUS. 
155 
situations are placed nearly upright, but when in the latter upon 
their sides, being built of course to suit the boughs in which they 
are placed. Several nests may be found within a few yards of 
each other in the same clump of trees with birds sitting in each of 
them. The number of eggs in a nest varies from five to ten. My 
brother Mr. James Ramsay, informs me that he has taken no less 
than fourteen from one nest, and in these cases believes them to 
be the joint property of several birds ; the usual number however 
is five, which are either much elongated or rounded in form, and 
not unfrequeutly have the ends of equal thickness ; the medium 
size is one inch in length by nine lines in breadth. The ground 
colour is brownish, yellowish, or purplish-buff covered with a most 
peculiar network of veins and hair-lines running in various 
directions, both across and round the surface ; these lines are of a 
dark purplish-brown. The colouring matter has the peculiarity of 
being easily rubbed oft’.” ( Ramsay , Proc. Phil. Soc., Sydney, 1865, 
p. 316, pi. i., fig. 1.) 
A set in the Australian Museum Collection measures as follows: 
length (A) 1-03 x 0'73 inch ; (B) 1-05 x 0-73 inch ; (C) 1-04 x 
076 inch ; (D) 1-04 x 0'73 inch ; (E) T07 x 0'75 inch. 
I found this species breeding in great numbers on the Bell and 
Macquarie Rivers during August 1887. 
Hob. Gulf of Carpentaria, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, 
Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, 
New South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia. 
(Ramsay.) 
POMATOSTOMUS RUBECULUS, Gould. 
Red-breasted Pomatostomus. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Bds. Aust, Vol. i., sp. 293, p. 481. 
“ Nest flask-shaped, of thin twigs and sticks interwoven, lined 
with fine grasses, shreds of bark and sometimes a few feathers ; it 
is placed at the end of some bushy branch or among thick upright 
twigs, and is very similar to that of P. temporalis as described by 
