126 MUSCICAPID.E. 



and a quarter: length, including dependent tail, four inches; internally one inch and two-thirds 

 in diameter by one inch and a quarter in depth. These birds are as plentiful and as tame in 

 winter as in summer." 



Eggs two or three in number for a sitting: oval or rounded oval in form, the shell being 

 close grained, dull and lustreless. The ground colour, which varies from dull to creamy-white, 

 is freckled or blotched with pale or creamy-brown, particularly on the larger end, where in 

 some specimens they are intermingled with underlying markings of dull bluish-grey. The 

 same variation in colour and distribution of their markings is to be found in the eggs of this 

 species as in those of R. albisiapa, from which they cannot be distinguished. A set of three 

 measures: — Length (A) 0-64 x 0-45 inches; (B) 0-65 x 0-45 inches; (C) 0-65 x 0-46 inches. A 

 set of two measures: — Length (A) o-6i x 0-47 inches; (B) o-6 x 0-47 inches. 



Rhipidura albicauda. 



WHITE-TAILED FAXTAIL. 

 Khipidura alhicanda, North, Ibis, 1895, p. 340; id., Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Central Austr., Pt. II , 

 Zool., p. ".">, pi. 6, lower tig., (1896). 



Adult \l.\LE^Genei-al colour above ashy-broivn, becoming slightly darker on the head and browner 

 on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; lesser wing-coverts ashy-brown, the median and greater series 

 dark brown, the former narrowly, and the latter largely, tipped with ivhite; quills dusky brown, 

 the innermost secondaries margined with tvhite on their outer webs; two central tail Jeathers blackish- 

 brown, the two outermost feathers on either side pure tvhite, the remainder tvhite, narroivhj edged 

 with blackishbrowit on the basal half of their outer webs, which increases in extent towards the tivo 

 central feathers ; lores and ear-coverts blackisJi-brown ; a line above the eye, and a shorter one above 

 the ear-coverts, ivhite; cheeks and throat white; loiver throat dull black; remainder of the inider 

 surface light ochraceous-buff ; sides of the breast pale ashybronn ; under tail-coverts tvhite: bill 

 black; legs and feel brownish-black; iris black. Total length 5'8 inches, tving 2'S, tail S'5, bill 

 0-25, tarsus 65. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — Central Australia. 



^^HIS species, which differs from R. albiscapa in having all but the two central tail feathers 

 pure white, was one of the novelties secured by the members of the Horn Scientific 

 E.xpedition in Central Australia in 1894. Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me that "it haunts the 

 mulga scrubs of the Levi Range, where specimens were obtained, and others were shot at 

 Petermann and Adminga Creeks; it is also fairly plentiful near lUaniiirta. In note, and liabit 

 of fluttering from branch to branch, it closely resembled R. albiscapa, but when its glossy-white 

 outer tail feathers on either side of the dark centre were displayed, the difference was at once 

 very conspicuous, more especially when the sun was shining through them, making each 

 feather appear as if it was made of white satin." 



The small cobweb coated and delicately formed open nest of this species doubtless closely 

 resembles that of its well-known near ally the White-shafted Fantail, for Mr. C. E. Cowle who 

 found one at lllamurta in December, 1894, '" describing it to Mr. Keartland, states it is of a 

 "pipe-like shape," evidently referring to the tail-like appendage below the nest, and the thin 

 mulga branch on which it was placed. The single egg, however, which it contained, varies 

 somewhat from typical eggs of the White-shafted Fantail. It is oval in form and of a faint 

 buffy-white ground colour, which is thickly covered with minute and indistinct freckles of pale 

 purplish-buff, the markings being most thickly disposed on the larger end and thus forming an 

 obscure cap. Length : — 0-65 x 0-5 inches. Another egg subsequently received by Mr. Keartland, 

 is indistinguishable from the ordinary zoned type of egg of R. albiscapa. 



