probable tbat, in places where no. suitable substitute is to be found,- it-makes a .rather small nest, like all
the other species of its trihe. It commences breeding early, and rears at least' two broods in the year :
on reference to my note-book, I find I saw fully-fiedged young on the 19th o f November, and that I took
many of their eggs in December : they were generally two in number, of a rich salmon colour irregularly
spotted with rust-brown, one inch and a cjuhrter long by ten and a half lines broad.
The sexes differ in no respect from each other either in the colouring of the plumage or in the blended
richness and delicacy of the bine surrounding the eye, to which it is almost impossible for the artist to do
justice.
The young assume the plumage of the adult from the nest, but differ from them in having the naked
face and the base o f the Ml of a pale yellowish olive, which gradually changes to blue after the first
season; this has doubtless occasioned the great number o f synonyms quoted above.
The adults have the crown o f the head and back of the neck black; lower part of the face chin and
centre of the chest slaty black; a crescenrishaped mark at the occiput, a line from the lower mandible
passing down each side of the neck, and all the under surface pure white; the upper surface, wings and
tad golden olive; the inner webs of the primaries and all but the two centre tail-feathers brown • the’ tail-
feathers tipped with white; basal portion o f the bill pale bluish grey, passing into blackish horn-colour at
the tip; bare space surrounding the eye rich deep blue, becoming o f slighter and greenish hue above the
eye; lrides yellowish white; eyelash jet-black; feet bluish grey.
The young of the first autumn have the eye dark olive with a black lash, and the denuded parts surrounding
it, the base of the under mandible and the gape greenish brimstone-yellow; nostrils anil culmen
near the head yellowish horn-colour, passing into blackish brown at the tip; feet very similar to those of
the adult.
The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size, on a branch o f one of the lofty Eucalypti of
the river Hunter. r