OCR Text |
Show 1875.] BIRDS FROM QUEENSLAND. 587 82. MONARCHA TRIVIRGATA. One of the most common scrub birds. Its actions aremore animated than those of M. carinata; it constructs the same kind of nests, in similar places, and of the same materials ; also lays eggs two or three in number, of the same colour and markings, only differing a little in size. 83. GERYGONE ALBOGULARIS. This species just arrived in time, before I left the Herbert, to be entered in the list; their arrival was announced by their pretty, melodious song, about the end of April. They arrive to breed with us in New South Wales in September or late in August. If I remember right, their nest and eggs I have fully described previously, 84. GERYGONE CULICIVORA? This is either G. culicivora or a new species. It is found common among the dense belts of mangroves near Cardwell; we found several of its nests containing eggs and young birds on Feb. 26, when my young friend Master I. Sheridan, an enthusiastic young naturalist, kindly waded nearly up to his thighs in black mud to secure them for me ; one nest contained the eggs of a Cuckoo, exactly the same as that of Chrysococcyx plagosus, but smaller than any eggs of that bird I have hitherto met with; it is probably the egg of O. minutillus. The nest is a somewhat bulky structure, and resembles closely a lump of debris left by the floods hanging to the end of some leafy twig, it is composed of shreds of bark, dried water-weeds, and withered grasses, selected, I have no doubt, from tbe debris of the floods, plentiful on every side. It is oval oblong, with a small side entrance, and suspended by the top to the end of some hanging branch, often a considerable distance from the shore. The eggs are white, with a few dots of brown at the larger end; some altogether white, without any markings. 85. GERYGONE, sp. inc. One of the most common species, always to be found in the dense scrubs by its pleasing twittering note. The birds were in full moult when shot. A very indistinct dark bar across tip of the tail, otherwise like G. albogularis. 86. ERYTHRODRYAS ROSEA. One pair noticed on the margin of a dense scrub ; although frequently watched for hours, no nest was discovered. 87. PETROICA MULTICOLOR. 88. MELANODRYAS CUCULLATA. Both species appear to be residents; they are not plentiful, but met with on several occasions in the open forest-lands, and near the homesteads of the settlers. |