124 KHIPIDUKA. 



then again took possession of the nest. Another Fantail whose nest was found the same after- 

 noon, did not exhibit the same fearless disposition, but forsook its charge immediately my 

 companion commenced to climb the tree. Both of these nests were about fifteen feet from the 

 ground, and each contained an egg of the Square-tailed Cuckoo. On the 8th December, 1898, 

 we found a White-shafted Fantail sitting on its nest in a low gum sapling at Roseville. 

 Attempts to frighten or dislodge it with a Grass-tree stem were unsuccessful, but it abandoned 

 the nest directly we essayed to lift it off". The nest, which the Fantails afterwards deserted, 

 only contained an egg of the Square-tailed Cuckoo. 



A nest I found at Roseville, on the 13th October, 1901, was built on a thin dead twig of a 

 Smooth-barked Apple-tree (Angophora lanceolata), about four feet from the ground, and contained 

 three partially incubated eggs. These I removed, and concealed under some fallen leaves of a 

 Casiiarina siibevosa. On returning next day to photograph the nest, I observed the same pair of 

 birds busily engaged in carrying nestinj; material into an adjoinini; paddock. Following them 

 up, 1 found about sixty yards away they had already formed — under the junction of several thin 

 leafy twigs of a Turpentine (Syncarpia laurifolia), at a height of four feel from the ground, — the 

 tail or stem-like appendage of a new nest. Passing the structure two days later, I found half 

 of the cup formed ; and on the 22nd October, or ten days later since removing the eggs from 

 the first nest, I found the second one completed, and the female sitting on two fresh eggs. Of 

 six nests I found that season, five contained either three eggs or three young ones. 



When the young ones are about half-fledged, and their bills are visible over the edge of 

 the nest, the rim of the hitherto neat structure loses that rounded appearance, and becomes 

 much frayed, and is greatly bulged and flattened out as the youn^ continue to grow. .-\ nest 

 I had under daily observation at Roseville, about seven feet from the ground, built in a Forest 

 Oak (Casiiarina suberosa), on my visiting it on the Sth November, 1901, contained three young 

 ones standing on a shapeless mass of nesting material. On my venturing beneath it, two of 

 them fluttered away from the remains of what was once a perfect and beautiful home. 



Rhipidura preissi. 



PKEl.Ss'S FANTAIL. 

 Rhijndura preissi, Cabanis, Mus llein., Theil. I., p. .57 (1850); Gould, llandljk. Bds. Au.str., 

 Vol. I., p. 240 (1865); Sharpe, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1881, p. 387. 



Adult m.\le — Similar to the adult male of R. albiscapa, hut Iiaving the upper parts with a 

 slightly more ashy-grey shade, the under surface of a lighti-.r ochraceous-buff] and no black band on 

 the lower throat, which is ashy-brown tinged ivith grey, like the sides of the breast. Total length 5 8 

 inches, iving 3, tail 3'4, bill OS, tarsus 0'7. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the adult male. 



Distribution. — Western and North western Australia. 



" y-'^ REISS'S FANTAIL is the representative of R. albiscapa in Western and North-western 

 -L Australia. While collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the .Xustralian Museum, Mr. 

 George Masters, the present Curator of the Macleay Museum, obtained adults and young at 

 King George's Sound, in March, 1866; and again, in the same locality, in November, 1868. 

 Its haunts and habits, Mr. Masters informs me, are precisely similar to those of R. albiscapa. 



From Point Cloates, North-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter writes me, as follows: — 

 "/?/i!^jiHra/im552, is mostly a winter visitor here, and some years is quite numerous, arriving 

 about the end of May or June. It is common in the mangroves, where there is an abundance 

 of insects, and I have often noticed it on the beach feeding upon small flies that abound on 

 strips of seaweed left by the receeding tide. This species is very tame and confiding." 



