in others greenish, thickly speckled with reddish brown over the entire surface of the shell.
Occasionally eggs are found with only a few minute markings upon the larger end. Dimensions of
eggs taken at Cheltenham, in July 1878, were 1-4-1-42 X 0*91 inch. Others obtained at Dobroyde,
in July 1860, measure as follows :—1-38-1-4 X 0-87-0-89. inch.”
Mr. A. J. Campbell, another well-known authority on Australian oology, describes the groundcolour
of the eggs of G. lunulata as light delicate green, washed and blotched, especially at the
larger end, with pinkish red or brown. He gives the size as 1*28 X 0*83 inch.
Mr. Campbell further remarks that this bird is one of the earliest breeders, and that he has
taken eggs in the coast ti-tree scrub.in July. He describes the nests as situated in forks or limbs of
low trees, and as made of green moss, dried leaves,, grass, &c. matted together with dirt and sand,
and securely lined with a thick ply of grass. The cup of the nest is 6 or 7 inches in diameter by
3 inches deep, and he says the bird sometimes rebuilds its old nests year after year, continually
adding fresh material until the foundations become of immense size.
G. lunulata is a very distinct species, remarkable for its long tail, for the absence of pale bars
across the feathers of the crown, and for the difference in colour between the crown and the rest of
the upper parts. The four central tail-feathers are always paler and greener than the three feathers
on each side of them, but in very faded examples the difference is occasionally less evident. The
white at the end of the outermost rectrices seldom exceeds a quarter of an inch. The Geocichline
markings on the inner webs of the quills are buff, or white tinged with buff.
The dimensions are as follows:—Length of wing 5‘5 to 5'1 inches, tail 4-6 to 4-1 inches, culmen
1-25 to 1-2 inch, tarsus 1-3 to 1-25 inch. Outer tail-feathers about 0-2 inch shorter than the longest.
First primary generally shorter than the primary-coverts. Second primary sometimes slightly shorter,
sometimes slightly longer, than the sixth.
G. lunulata and G. cuneata are the only species of the sub-genus Oreocincla in which the
ground-colour of the crown and nape is russet-brown, whilst that of the rest of the upper parts is
olive-brown.
G. lunulata differs from all its allies, except G. cuneata and G. Jieinii, in having the pale
sub-terminal bars across the feathers of the crown so obscure as to be practically obsolete.
It also differs from all its allies, excepting G. macrorhyncha and G. cuneata, in having the tail
more than four-fifths of the length of the wing.
It further differs from G. heinii, G. papuensis, and G. cimeata in having the white at the tips of
the outermost tail-feathers much less than an inch in length.
It differs from G. varia and G. horsfieldz in having only twelve rectrices.
The bufi on the wing-coverts and the dark colour on the tail-feathers are less pronounced in this
species than in any other belonging to the sub-genus, but the four central tail-feathers are always
paler olive-brown than the rest.
The figure in the Plate is drawn of life-size, from an example in my collection purchased from a
dealer. A full-sized figure has also been given in Gould’s great work on the ‘ Birds of Australia ’
(vol. iv. plate 7), but the plate is not very satisfactory. The figure in Diggles’s ‘ Ornithology of
Australia (part xvii.) is also life-size. The three species then known to inhabit Australia and
Tasmania are confused together in the text, of this work, and the plate is probably meant to
represent the south-eastern form of Oreocincla.
GrEOCICHLA MACRORHYNCHA [Gould).
TASMANIAN GROUND-THRUSH.
Oreocincla macrorhyncha, Gould, P. Z. S. 1837, p. 145.
Turdus macrorhynchus, Gray, Gen. B. i. p. 218 (1847).
Oreocincla lunulata (pt.), Gould, Handb. B. Austr. i. p. 439 (1865).
Geocichla macrorhyncha, Seebohm, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. v. p. 156 (1881).
G. supra rufescenti-bruunea, nigro lunulata : pileo ochraceo variegato : caud& longa, redtricibus externis anguste
(c. 10 mm.) albo terminatis.
T his Ground-Thrush was described from a specimen in the British Museum said to have come
from New Zealand. This type specimen was apparently no longer in the collection when I
described the Thrushes for the ‘ Catalogue of Birds ’ in 1881. Gould afterwards united the
species to G. lunulata, but, in my opinion, they should be kept distinct; at all events on the present
evidence at our disposal.
The Tasmanian Ground-Thrush resembles G. lunulata in the comparative length of the wing
and tail, but the former bird has ochraceous-brown spots on the crown, nape, and scapulars, and is
more buff on the breast. Inasmuch as both these characters are signs of immaturity in the sub-genus
Oreocincla, it would appear at first sight as i f the Tasmanian specimens were only the immature
examples of the South-Australian G. lunulata, as Gould was inclined to consider them. As, however,
all the Tasmanian examples that I have examined agree in having pale spots on the crown,
nape, and scapulars, it would appear that this character is a distinctive one for the Tasmanian
bird, which must, for the present at least, be regarded as specifically distinct from its Australian
ally.
Gould describes the Tasmanian Ground-Thrush as being found by him on the slopes of
Mount Wellington and other similar bold elevations. As in his ‘ Handbook’ he does not
distinguish between G. macrorhyncha and G. lunulata, the account of the habits given by him in
the above-mentioned work may have been drawn only from his experiences in Tasmania.
Dr. E. P. Bamsay gives the following account of the eggs of the present species:—“ The nest
and eggs are very much the same as those of G. lunulata, Lath., but are larger; the eggs are three for
a sitting, of a greenish white, strongly freckled all over, but more numerously at the larger end, with
rich reddish brown; some confluent markings take a longitudinal direction or run obliquely with the
long axis of the egg. An average specimen measures 1-33 inch in length by 0*95 inch through its
short diameter.”' Mr. A. G. Campbell likewise remarks that the eggs of the Ground-Thrush
which he took in Tasmania were larger than those which he procured in Victoria, measuring 1.-35
by Q-94 inch. He further adds that this bird breeds so early in Tasmania that he has known eggs
to be taken in July when the ground was covered with snow.
G. macrorhyncha is one of the three long-tailed species of the sub-genus Oreocincla in which
the length of the tail is four-fifths or more the length of the wing. It is very easily distinguished
from the other two long-tailed species. It agrees with one of them, G. lunulata, in having narrow
(less than half an inch) white tips to the inner webs of the outermost tail-feathers, but differs from