( 5 ) 



an evident young female (though not sexed) the tail consists of some abraded old 

 cinnamon feathers, and of the fresh sprouting feathers some are black, others 

 side by side with the black, cinnamon, and some mixed black and cinnamon. This 

 same specimen has mixed feathers on many parts of its body and wings, while 

 sprouting remiges are sooty black. 



Some of the adult males have the black tips to the wings more extended ^ 

 while in others they are nearly quite absent. Two adult females have single 

 tail-feathers pure white or irregularly marked with white, and one has a quite 

 white chin, while most examples have only three to sis tiny chin-feathers white. 



The adult male and female have the bill and feet slaty grey, the iris clove- 

 brown. The young have the base of the lower bill yellowish. The local name 

 is "Ouaf" or " Uaf," and from the natives having the same name for all the 

 plumages it is evident that they are aware of their history. 



The species is apparently only to be found on Ruk Island. Its song is 

 strong and pleasant. 



Two nests were found on June 1st and 4th, both twenty feet high, on bread- 

 fruit trees. A third was taken on June 12th on a " Chiiya" tree. The nests are 

 built of dry palms, of fibres and grass, with a few decomposed leaves and rootlets, 

 and each contains one single egg only. According to Finsch (Proc. Zool. Soc, 

 1880, p. 57.5) Kubary found either one or two eggs. The eggs are cream-coloured, 

 speckled with brownish red, more frequently and often very thickly on the large 

 end, and with some deeper lying pale purplish grey patches, and one has some 

 very fine black lines on the large end. 



The eggs measure : 256 : 18-4, 26-5 : 18-6, and 26-i3 : 10-.5 mm. The shape 

 is that of shrikes' eggs. 



A very good figure of the egg is given on pi. I., fig. 5, in Nehrkorn's " Kataloij 

 der Eiersammluny ^'' 



(j. Myiagra oceanica Jacq. & Pach. 

 (AViglesworth No. 101 p. 2:5.) (Nehrkoru, Kat. Eiersamml. p. 30, Egg I) 



Very numerous on Ruk Island. The female difi"ers from the adult incile in 

 having the crown not steel-blue, but dark grey, with a faint steel-blue gloss, 

 and in being very little smaller — the wing perhaps two or tliree millimetres shorter. 

 " The iris is seal-brown (Ridgway pi. III. 1) ; the upper bill blue-black, with a 

 pale plnmbeous streak near the cutting-edge ; lower bOl dark plumbeous ; legs 

 and toes blackish slate-colour." Native name on Ruk " Koi-Koi." 



A good many nests were found from March to July, but chiefly in June. 

 They contained all one egg only, but one had two, of which, however, one was 

 broken by the finder. The nests are neatly and strongly woven, beautifully round 

 and somewhat flat. The bottom is thick, but the walls thiu. They are composed 

 of fibres and rootlets, and outside are more or less ornamented, with pale greyish 

 green lichens and cobwebs, some very beautifully. They are placed on l)read-frnit 

 and other trees, about seven to twenty feet from the ground. The eggs are pale 

 greenish or brownish white, not much pointed, generally marked with a wide belt 

 round the middle, closely resembling many shrikes' eggs. The spotting is generally 

 reddish brown, but sometimes of a paler brown, often spread all over the egg, and 

 there is nearly always some lavender-grey or ashy grey colour in the form ot 

 underlying patches and spots. Some eggs are white with only a few small brown 



