4
hearer to shut his eyes to the neighbouring foliage, to fancy himself surrounded by London Grimalkins of
house-top celebrity.”

In 1877 Dr. Ramsay described a nest and eggs supposed to belong to the Cat-bird, but he entertained
some doubt as to their authenticity, and Mr. North, who reproduced the description in his ‘ Nests and Eggs
of Australian Birds,’ evidently shared the misgivings of Dr. Ramsay.

Mr. North writes:—‘For an opportunity of examining an authentic nest and egg of the New
South Wales Cat-bird, Vuredus viridis, J am indebted to Mr. W. J. Grime, a most enthusiastic and
persevering oologist, who recently procured two nests of this species on the Tweed River, and sent the
following notes relative to the taking of them :—

“©On the 4th of October, 1890, I was ont looking for nests, accompanied by a boy. I left him for a little
while to go further in the scrub, and on my return he informed me he had found a Cat-bird’s nest with two
eggs, one of which he showed me, the other one he broke when descending from the tree. I went with him
to the nest and found the old birds very savage, flying at us, and fluttering along the ground. The nest was
built in a three-pronged fork of a tree, about fourteen feet from the ground. The tree was only four inches in
diameter, and was in a jungle or light scrub, about fifty yards from the edge of the open country. I felled
the tree and secured the nest, of the authenticity of which there is no doubt, as the old birds strongly
objected to my taking it. The eggs had been sat on for a few days and were partially incubated.’

“In a subsequent letter dated November the 8th, Mr. Grime writes :—‘ To-day I found another Cat-bird’s
nest and drove the parent bird off it myself. I thought I had more eggs, as the Cat-bird would not leave
the nest until fairly shaken out, but when I examined the nest I found two young birds in if, apparently
just hatched a couple of days.’

«The nest of Aluredus viridis is a beautiful structure, being bowl-shaped and composed exteriorly of long
twigs, entwined around the large broad leaves of Péarietia argyrodendron and other broad-leaved trees, some
of the leaves measuring eleven inches in length by four inches in breadth. The leaves appear to have been
picked when green, so beautifully do they fit the rounded form of the nest, one side of which is almost
hidden by them. The interior of the nest is lined entirely with fine twigs. The nest of Aluredus viridis
is similar to that of A. maculosus, but larger, and both of them can be readily distinguished from those of
any other Australian bird by the peculiarity of having large broad leaves used in the construction of the
exterior portion of the nest.

“The eggs of 4. viridis are two in number for a sitting, oval in form, being but slightly compressed at the
smaller end, of a uniform creamy-white, very faintly tinged with green, the shell being comparatively smooth
and slightly glossy. Length 1°66 inch x 1:2 inch.”

Adult. Above bright grass-green, with a greyish-white patch on the side of the lower neck ; primaries
slightly shaded externally with bluish, the inner webs of the quills greyish brown; median and greater
wing-coverts, as well as the secondaries, tipped with yellowish white; tail-feathers bright grass-green,
inclining to greyish black on the inner web, and tipped with white, more largely on the inner web; head
and neck green, rather more yellowish than the back, the feathers bluish underneath when lifted, the hind
neck and sides of the neck, as well as the mantle, slightly streaked with minute shaft-lines of buffy white ;
sides of face dull olive-greenish, including the ear-coverts, which have a dull sort of silvery lustre ; round
the eye a ring of whitish feathers; fore part of cheeks, feathers below the eyes and on the malar line, slightly
spotted with black; throat dull greyish, slightly washed with olive-green and minutely spotted with white ;
rest of under surface of body dull olive-greenish, all the feathers mesially streaked with a distinct lanceolate
spot of white; centre of the belly, vent, and under tail-coverts uniform yellowish ; under wing-coverts
whitish, barred across with ashy grey and slightly washed with green, especially on the edge of the wing:
bill light horn-colour ; feet whitish; iris brownish red ” (J. Gould). ‘Total length 12 inches, culmen 1-235,
wing 6°35, tail 5, tarsus 1-95.

The description is taken from the British Museum ‘ Catalogue of Birds,’ and the figures in the Plate
represent a pair of adult birds, drawn from specimens in the British Museum.