OCR Text |
Show 1875.] BIRDS FROM QUEENSLAND. 589 posed of rootlets, and skeletons of leaves and ferns, &c, lined with finer material, and sometimes, I am told, with feathers; it is not unlike a very large^sized nest of Sericornis frontalis, or a bulky nest of Malurus cyaneus, it is dome-shaped, with a comparatively large opening in the side, and placed in low bushes surrounded by vines &c. The eggs are three to four in number, of a greenish-white colour, with blackish, irregular, linear-shaped markings, some twisted and looped ; a few on the larger end, where they are most numerous, are of a slaty blue, and appear beneath the surface of the shell; on the thicker end of some, hair-lines of black predominate, and, crossing and looping over one another, form here and there a black blotch. Length 1*1 to 1*2 inch, by 0*8 to 0*85. 94. MALURUS CYANEUS. I met with this species at Port Dennison, but not further north if I remember rightly. 95. MALURUS AMABILIS. 96. MALURUS HYPOLEUCUS, Gould, Suppl. B. A. pl. 22. These birds, whether they be of the same species or not, were found together on the open grass-lands in the neighbourhood of Cardwell, in the vicinity of scrubs. It has not by any means been proved that they are male and female of the same species, as I find neither Cockerell nor Thorpe, during their trip at Cape York, ascertained the sexes of the birds they shot, by dissection: I have made particular inquiries of Mr. Thorpe on this point; and I regret to say my collector at Rockingham Bay, when he skinned my specimens, made the same mistake, and went solely by the plumage; in the same locality were shot specimens of M. lamberti. It is not improbable that Mr. Gould's Malurus hypoleucus is quite a distinct species, or perhaps the young male of M. amabilis ; but from the shape of the bill & c I am at present inclined to believe it to be a distinct species; the fact that they associate together in troops proves nothing on this point. 97. MALURUS LAMBERTI. I think Rockingham Bay must be the most northern limit of this species. The New South Wales birds differ in the tint of colouring from those from South Australia, being of a more verditer blue on the head, and of a lighter tint on the back. 98. MALURUS MELANOCEPHALUS. Common everywhere from the Clarence river in New South Wales to Cape York. 99. CISTICOLA RUFICEPS. This species is plentifully dispersed over the grass beds; it is common near Sydney, and equally plentiful at Cape York. The nest is a very neat, dome-shaped structure, chiefly composed of fine grasses, thistle-down, and cobweb, or the flowering portions of |