128 MUSCICAPID.E. 



The nest, like that of R. albiscapa, resembles in shape a wine-glass with the base broken off 

 at the lower end of the stem, but it is somewhat larger and made of coarser material. Usually it 

 is composed of shreds of bark, bound round and held together with cobwebs, the inside being 

 lined with black hair-like rootlets, dried grasses, or the fruiting stalks of mosses, the tail-like 

 appendage below the nest proper being of varying length and sometimes entirely absent. An 

 average nest measures externally two inches and a half in diameter by two inches in depth, 

 internally two inches in diameter by one inch in depth, the tail-like appendage below the nest 

 measuring three inches and a half. 



A nest received from Mr. J. Gabriel, and taken at Bayswater, ^'ictoria, is built on the 

 midrib of a fern frond, and is securely held in position by the nesting material being worked 

 over the pinnae at each side. It is cup-shaped in form, and lacks the usual tail-like appendage, 

 the width of the frond probably precluding the birds from constructing it. The nest is formed 

 of the soft yellowish-white inner bark of trees, bound round with cobwebs, the outside being 

 lined with very fine dried grasses, a small quantity of bright orange-red fruit and fruit-stalks of 

 mosses. Four other nests, taken in the same locality, are built at the junction of several thin 

 leafy branchlets near the end of partially upright or drooping branches, the tail-like appendage 

 of one nest being woven around a thin perpendicular twig beneath the nest. With the above 

 nests, Mr. Gabriel has kindly sent the following notes: — "The Rufous-fronted Fantail, as a 

 rule, builds over or near water in the fern gullies, but I have found them well up the creek 

 banks. The nests are cunningly placed, and easily overlooked, but at Bayswater the birds 

 shew a decided preference for the Hazel (Pomaderris apetala), and the Blanket-tree (Scnecio 

 hedfordi). As far as my experience goes, December and January are the usual breeding months, 

 but I have found several nests with young- in December, and have a set of eggs in my 

 possession that were quite fresh when taken on the ist February, 1896. A friend of mine 

 found a nest only a foot above the surface of the water, and I ha\e taken them in hazel trees 

 at a height of twenty feet from the ground." 



A nest of this species in the Australian Museum collection, found on the i6th January, 

 1897, by Mr. S. W. Moore and his son at the Valley of Waters, in the Blue Mountains, New 

 South Wales, was built in a Coach-wo(Kl (Crystapetalum apetalnm) growing on the steep bank of 

 a creek, about ten yards from tiie water. It contained two fresh eggs that were visible when 

 standing on the shelving ground above the tree in which the nest was built. Mr. Moore found 

 the nest of the same pair of birds ten days after, not far from the site of the previous one, 

 containing two fresh eggs. It was built in a tree about four feet from the ground, and was 

 partially hidden by a large boulder. At Waterfall, on the and January, 1899, Mr. Moore found 

 an unfinished nest in a Coach-wood, on the bank of a creek close to where we were having our 

 lunch. It was built near the leafy extremity of a thin branch about a foot from the ground, 

 and was rendered more difficult of detection by the lower branches of the tree being covered in 

 places with debris, while the creek had been previously in flood. Ten days later Mr. L. Moore 

 visited it and ftjund it completed, with one egg in the nest, and another lying broken beneath it. 



The nests are usually built at the junction of a one or more pronged horizontal leafy branch, 

 sometimes against or in a thin upright fork, and in the rich coastal brushes not infrequently on 

 a vine. Generally they are low down and within hand's reach, sometimes within a foot of the 

 ground, the height varying up to twenty feet. The nests I have found in New South Wales 

 were, as a rule, built in large-leaved trees. Although the present species is usually more 

 cautious than the White-shafted Fantail, like that species it is a close sitter when one 

 approaches near the nest. 



The nest figured I found on the iith November, 1901, at Ourimbah. when about two- 

 thirds built. It was placed on the thin stem of a tree under a creek hank. On the 23rd 



