190 
RTTTRNIDiE. 
I found these birds very plentiful in the neighbourhood of 
Wellington and Dubbo, in New South Wales. 
I lab. Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 
Dawson River, Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New 
South Wales, Interior, Victoria and South Australia. (Ramsay ) 
Family STURNIDJE. 
Genus CALORNIS, G. B. Gray. 
CALORNIS METALL1CA, Temminck. 
Shining Calornis. 
Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aunt., Vol. i., sp. 291, p. 477. 
“ Thisisoneof the most common birds in the scrubsofthe Herbert 
River. They breed in companies, seemingly all through the year, 
making large bulky nests of grass and fine twigs with a side 
opening, hanging from the ends of the leafy boughs in clusters 
or singly ; at times the branches break off with the weight of the 
nests and their contents. On the Herbert River I noticed they 
gave preference to a small-leaved species of tig resembling Ficus 
syringifolia; and before a colony began to build the twigs on 
many of the branches were broken and began to wither, and 
ha tiffin" down, at a distance resembled in colour the brown nests 
of this species. I noticed this on two occasions, and remarked to 
Inspector Johnstone that the birds were building near his camp. 
However, when examining the trees through our field-glasses, we 
found nothing but bunches of dry leaves swinging about with the 
wind. A few days afterwards we noticed a neighbouring fig-tree 
in a similar condition, and as both trees were resorted to by these 
birds, I was under the impression that it was caused by the ravages 
of some insect which the birds came to feed on ; however, about 
a month afterwards, Mr. Johnstone informed me that these trees 
had been taken possession of by colonies of Weaver-birds (or 
