122 RHIPIDURA. 



webs on the outside, and lined with bark fibre. Nests, however, from different locaUties, vary 

 considerably in the materials from which they are constructed ; in humid mountain gullies the 

 foundations of some are formed of the soft downy reddish-brown covering of the newly budded 

 fronds of tree-ferns, others are built chiefly of thistle-down, but, in all, the exterior is more or 

 less thickly coated with spiders' webs. Occasionally the lining consists of very fine dried 

 grasses or wiry rootlets. The tail, or appendage, below the nest is also of varying length and 

 finish; in some I have seen long thin chips of wood or portions of leaves used instead of bark ; 

 it is not, too, always perfectly straight, for the nest is sometimes built over a nearly vertical 

 branch, and the tail is constructed around it. A typical one, now before me, is formed of 

 shreds and strips of the soft yellowish-white inner bark of trees, coated externally with spiders' 

 webs, and is lined inside with very thin strips of bark and bark fibre. It measures two inches 

 in external diameter, by a depth of four inches and a half, the nest proper measuring two 

 inches, and the appendage below the thin three-pronged leafy branch on which it was placed 

 two inches and a half; internal diameter of cup-like cavity one inch and three-quarters; depth 

 one inch and a quarter, .\bout Sydney thin dead twigs of gum saplings, tea-trees, and 

 turpentines, are often selected as nesting-sites. Sometimes the nest is formed in a tall Eucalyptus, 

 and, if the birds are unmolested, in any suitable tree about orchards and gardens. Generally 

 it is built at the junction of a two or more pronged horizontal forked twig, but not infreijuently 

 in a nearly upright fork or on a drooping branch. It is placed at a height varying from three 

 to forty feet from the ground, but on an average not over fifteen feet, and frequently within 

 hand's reach. 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, and vary from cnal to swollen oval in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, dull, and lustreless. They vary in ground colour from dull 

 white to creamy-white, some specimens being slightly darker on the larger end, and are 

 minutely freckled, dotted, spotted, or irregularly blotched with yellowish-brown, or wood- 

 brown, intermingled occasionally with a few underlying markings of a faint bluish-grey. As 

 a rule the markings predominate on the thicker end, where they form a more or less well 

 defined zone. In some specimens the markings are small and indistinct, and form a band of a 

 slightly darker shade than the ground colour around the larger end of the shell; others have 

 small clouded blotches unevenly distributed over the entire surface. .\ set of three, taken on 

 the 13th October, igoi, at Roseville, measures as follows: — Length (.\) 0-63 x 0-47 inches; 

 (B) 0-62 X 0-47 inches; (C) 0-62 x 0-41 inches. A set of two, taken in the same locality, on the 

 22nd October, igoi, measures: — (A) 0-64 x 0-48 inches; (B) 0-65 x 0-49 inches. A set of two, 

 taken at Chatswood, on the loth November, 1901, measures: — (A)o-6xo-5i; (B) o-6i x 0-5 

 inches. The nest from which these eggs were taken also contained an egg of the Square-tailed 

 Cuckoo. 



F'ledgelings are ashy-brown above, with dull rufous edges to all the feathers, those on the 

 crown of the head being of a clearer ashy-brown ; wing-coverts ashy-brown, with white tips 

 washed with rufous, as are also the margins and tips of the outer webs of the innermost 

 secondaries; tail ashy-brown, the lateral feathers, except at the base, white; eye-brows rufous; 

 on each side of the throat a narrow line of white feathers ; cheeks, throat, and chest rufous- 

 brown; remainder of the under surface dull white; bill blackish-brown; gape yellow; legs and 

 feet fleshy-red; iris blackish-brown. 



Young birds are duller in colour than the adults; the feathers on the sides of the nape, 

 back, and rump are on the extremity tipped with rufous; median and greater wing-coverts 

 dark-brown, tipped with rufous; the tips, of the tail feathers are smaller and of a dull white; 

 the white mark over the eye is more oval in shape, and the white mark above the ear-coverts 

 in the adult is absent; chin dull white; upper throat ashy-brown; a band on the lower throat 

 dull black ; remainder of the under surface ochraceous-buff. Wing 2-8 inches. 



