CHLAlfYDODERA. 
179 
“ The nest is an open structure usually placed in a low tree, and is 
saucer or bowl-shaped, composed of sticks, and lined with grass, 
about five inches inside diameter by three deep, and four inches 
high. It is very rarely indeed that C. maculata, is found. near 
the coast, although on one occasion Dr. Ramsay procured an egg 
on Ash Island, near Hexham, on the Hunter River, about ten 
miles from the sea coast. This was in 1861, and probably the 
first time that the egg had been found, although this fact appears 
to have escaped the Doctor’s memory, since he described another 
egg of the same species thirteen years afterwards—(P.Z.S., 1874, 
p. 605), when Mr. J. B. White was credited with having obtained 
the first specimen. I give Dr. Ramsay’s description, which is 
that of the typical egg, and of the most usual variety found : — 
“ ‘ In form elongate, tapering ; shell thin and delicate, somewhat 
shining and smooth. Ground colour of a delicate greenish-white 
tint, surrounded with narrow, wavy, twisted, irregular, thread-like 
lines of brown, dark umber, light umber-brown, and a few blackish- 
brown, which cross and rccross each other, forming an irregular 
network round the centre and thicker end ; towards the thinner 
end they are not so closely interwoven, and light brown lines 
appear as if beneath the surface of the shell, also a few black 
irregular shaped linear markings, much broader than the rest, 
show conspicuously against the pale greenish-white ground ; and 
here and there, over the whole surface, are scattered ill-shapen 
figures resembling two’s, three’s and five’s (2, 3, 5) of various tints 
of colour. Length 1-5 inch ; breadth, 1 inch.’ 
“In 1875, Mr. James Ramsay obtained several specimens of 
both birds and eggs at Tyndarie ; and others were received from 
the Clarence River district. Since then the eggs have become 
less rare, and are to be found in most collections formed in the 
interior. The eggs of C. maculata vary considerably in the extent 
of their markings, and sometimes in the tints of colouring ; one I 
have from the Dawson River district is slightly smaller than usual, 
and has the ground colour a faint greenish-grey, covered all over 
with a fine network of light brownish linear markings, closer 
together near the thicker end ; others have their markings confined 
