RJUPIDURA. 125 



A nest in the Australian Museum collection, taken at Kinj,' George's Sound b)' Mr. Masters 

 on the 7th October, 1868, is indistinguishable from that of its eastern representative; so also 

 are two of its eggs, taken in South-western Australia in October, 1899. The latter measure: — ■ 

 Length (A) 0-62 x 0-47 inches; (B) o-6 x 0-5 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but have the upper wing-coverts more broadly tipped 

 "with white; under surface more strongly washed with ochraceous-buff, and only a slight 

 indication of the ashy-brown band on the lower throat. Wing 2-7 inches. 



Rhipidura diemenensis. 



TASMANIAN FANTAIL. 

 Mhipidiira saliirala, Sharpe, Oat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IV., p. 311 (1879). 

 Rhipidura diemenensis, Sharpe, Ibis, 1879, p. 368. 



Adult male — Differs from the adult male of R. albiscapa in havuuj Oie 'tipper parts of a 

 slightly deeper brown shade, the tail feathers darker and having smaller and duller white tips, the 

 black band on the lower throat narrower, and the remaitider of the under surface of a slighlhj deeper 

 shade of ochraceous-buff. Total lenyth 5:5 inches, iring 29, tail 3'Jf., bill 0-J8, tarsus 0-6S. 



Adult female — Similar in plnmage to the male. 



Distribution. — Tasmania, and some of the islands of Bass Strait. 



^ I(^HE Tasmanian Fantail is another close ally of the continental species R. albiscapa. 

 JL Specimens in the Australian Museum collection were obtained by Mr. George Masters 

 at the Ouse River and Mount Wellington, in April and March, 1867. E.xamples in the flesh 

 have also recently been received from Mr. E. D. Atkinson, of Waratah, Mount Bischoff, in the 

 North-western portion of the island. From notes received from Mr. Atkinson 1 have extracted 

 the following information : — "These little birds are widely distributed over Tasmania, except 

 on the plain country, and are also found on Flinder's, Barren, and West Hunter's Islands. 

 Generally they are seen in pairs, more especially in the vicinity of water-courses, and in this 

 district frequently in the depths of the gloomy forest. They are constantly on the move, and 

 in a most irregular flight dart about in all directions in pursuit of small insects, which constitute 

 their food. The nest, which resembles a wine-glass in shape, is formed of shreds of bark bound 

 round with spiders' webs, and lined inside with glossy brown down gathered from the fronds of 

 the tree-fern. It is placed on a thin horizontal twig, or in a partially upright fork, and those I 

 found were by observing the head and tail of the sitting bird projecting over the sides of the 

 nest." 



The following information is extracted from Dr. Lonsdale Holden's MS. notes, made on 

 the North-western coast of Tasmania: — "I found an unfinished nest of Rhipidura diemenensis, 

 attached to the horizontal twigs of a tea-tree branch, in a swamp on Circular Head Peninsula, 

 on the 8th November, 1886. It was cup-shaped, and built of strips of fine whitish soft inner 

 bark, covered externally with cobwebs, and had a kind of tail or projection underneath the nest 

 like the broken stem of a wine-glass. Three days later I saw one of these birds building a 

 nest in a tea-tree swamp close to Stanley. On the 14th November I found another nest nearly 

 ready for eggs, in a tea-tree in the township paddock, Circular Head; it was about five and a 

 half feet from the ground. I took two eggs from this nest on the 20th November. Two days 

 later I visited the nest found on the nth November, and found the bird sitting on three eggs. 

 On the 30th November, at Brickmakers' Bay, I found a nest with three eggs, and another with 

 two, both sets being very much incubated. Perhaps the latter had lost an egg, for it was built 

 on a bit of loose dead branch, lying in a tea-tree, and was very much on one side when I found it. 

 Next day I found another nest in tea-tree scrub near Stanley, in which the bird was sitting on 

 two fresh eggs. In diameter the most perfect of these nests measures externally two inches 



Cc 



