. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . fine series of eggs, also young m all stages of plumage, inthe Australian Museum, collected by him during his long residence in the western portion ofNew South Wales. The nest, winch ,s built on a horizontal forked branch, resembles that o^ Graucalus rnela,u>ps^^but is sonrewhat larger and deeper, being composed externally of dried ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^-^Jgrasses, thm fibrous roots, and bark fibre, bound together with spiders web, the shaUowsaucer-like cavitv being lined with wool, fur, or other soft material. An average nest ineasu
. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . fine series of eggs, also young m all stages of plumage, inthe Australian Museum, collected by him during his long residence in the western portion ofNew South Wales. The nest, winch ,s built on a horizontal forked branch, resembles that o^ Graucalus rnela,u>ps^^but is sonrewhat larger and deeper, being composed externally of dried ^^^ ^ ^ ^ ^-^Jgrasses, thm fibrous roots, and bark fibre, bound together with spiders web, the shaUowsaucer-like cavitv being lined with wool, fur, or other soft material. An average nest ineasuresexternally five inches in diameter bv two inches in ^epth^he three i^^^^^^^^^^three-quarters in diameter by one inch m depth. Some nests are larger, and but t t-oughout ofsofter material. One now before me. taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at ^.-dembah bt t on,is a thick, rounded, mattrass-like structure, formed principally of wool, with ;^h i-ntemin-ded plant-stems, fine rootlets, dried grasses, and a few feathers; it ineasures externally. CiHuUND CUCKOO SHRIKK. 112 inches and a half in diameter by three inches in depth, the saucer-shaped depression measuringthree inches and three-quarters by a depth of one inch and a half. The nests in New SouthWales are usually built in a Eucalyptus or Casuariua. Generally the site selected is a horizontalbranch of a lofty tree, but the height varies from twenty to seventy feet from the ground. NearMoree, in November, 1897, I saw an old mud tenement of the Magpie-Lark taken possessionof by this species as a nesting-place. The eggs are usually three, and occasionally onlv two in number for a sitting. They varyin form from oval to elongate oval, some specimens tapering sharply towards the smaller end,the shell being close-grained and its surface smooth and glossy. In ground colour they varyfrom olive-green to dull asparagus and bright bluish-green, which is finely and closely freckled,as a rule, over the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookidnestseggsofb, bookyear1901
