4 THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 
livingin small troops from 5 to 15, and is dispersed all over the Downs 
(Darling). Together they commence building one nest; its material 
bei implv mud mixed with dry grass, and often here and there I 
Rib T s ded. If the soil from 
have found pebbles the size of a marble embed 
which the stuff is taken is > iny Downs, the nest 
shows that color; on t f a loomy character, as at 
Warroo and vicinity the color is lighter. 
first named case of dry grass and in 
hair, on which 5 or 6 eggs rest. The whole company attend to one 
nest as I have proved, after shooting two birds 
seeing a third sitting next day. As soon as the 
another nest gets built and so on until Christmas, (commencing in 
September), so that three broods may be expec 
September, 1879, I sent my black man up a tree to fetch me a nest 
with the complement of eggs. The nest weighed 74 lbs.” 
With regard to the nesting of the Corcorax, there still remain 
two important points to be settled. What is the proportion of 
male and female birds to one family or nest? And do the females 
lay each one or more eggs? 
An exceedingly large nest of this remarkable species taken in the 
Swan Hill district, 1893, by Mr Robert Hall, of the Field Naturalists” 
Club, weighed no less than 9 lb. 6 ozs. 
Breeding months, August or September to December. 
It may not be generally known that the Chough is, at seasons, & 
nuisance to farmers. A correspondent in the Mangalore district, 
Victoria, informs me these birds give some trouble in the newly sown 
flelds by pulling up grain just as it is germinating. 
STRUTHIDEA CINEREA. (Gould). 
GREY JUMPER. 
Ficuxx.—Gould; Birds of Australia, fol., Vol, IV, pl. 17. 
REFERENCE.— Cat. Bds., Brit. Mus., Vol. III, p. 140. 
Previous DescrIPrIONS OF Eaas.— 
Gould; Bds of Austr., Hdbk., Vol. I, p. 478, (1865). 
Ramsay; P.L.S., N.S.W., Vol. VII, p. (1882). 
GEOGRAPHICAL Distrıgurion.— Queensland, N. $. 
Victoria and S. Australia. 
Nesr.—Bowl-shaped, resembling the better known nest of the 
Magpie Lark (Grallina) but much lighter in structure and more 
symmetrical in form, built of mud (usually reddish colored when 
dry) bound together with grass and lined inside with fine grass and 
flowering stalks of same. Usually placed on the horizontal limb of 
small trees in belts of timber on the interior plains. 
Dimensions over all 5 or 6 inches by 3% inches in depth; egg 
cavity, 44 inches across, by 24 deep. í 
Eaas.—Clutch 5-7 or 8; Ovals, compressed slightly towards one 
end; texture of shell somewhat coarse with a perceptible trace of 
gloss upon the surface; color bluish-white here and there marked 
Wales, 
