RHIPIDURA. 



131 



Rhipidura dryas. 



WOOD FANTAIL. 

 Rhipidura dryas, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. I., Introd., p. xxxix. (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. 

 Austr., Vol. I., p. 242 (180.5); Sharps, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IV., p. 322 (1879). 



Adult M.KhE—RaseiiMes the adult nmlfi of R. kufifrons, but is principally distimjuislied from 

 that spi'cies by hanny the tail feathers largely tipped ivith white and being rufous at the base only ; 

 forehead, rump, and upper tail-coverts rufous: chin, upper throat, and sides of the neck white; 

 lower throat black; remainder <;/ the under surface dull white tinged with Julvous; sides of the 

 body and under tail-coverts pale fulvous; bill dark brown: legs and feet brown. Total length 

 6 inches, wing '27, tail o-J/., tarsus 75. 



Adult fe.male — SUmilar in plumage to the male. 



Z)w<ri6!taon.— Northern Territory of South Australia; Gulf District, gueensland. 

 /T^HE type of this species was obtained at Port Essington. Examples were secured by 

 X Mr. Alex. Morton and the late Mr. E. Spalding at Port Darwin; and both Mr. 

 Gulliver and Mr. K. Broadbent obtained specimens at the Norman River, in Northern 

 Queensland. 



An egg taken during January, 1902, near the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of 

 South Australia, is a short oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly 

 lustrous. It is of a dull yellowish white ground colour, with an indistinct zone of confluent 

 spots and blotches of dark yellowish-brown and bluish-grey around the thicker end. Length :— 

 0-65 X 0-52 inches. Another egg, taken at Port Darwin, is oval in form and of a creamy-white 

 ground colour, slightly darker at the larger end, where there is an irregular zone of spots and 

 small blotches of umber-brown, intermingled with a few underlying spots of dark bluish-grey. 

 Length-.— o-65x 0-47 inches. The latter egg is indistinguishable from that of its southern 

 congener R. vufifrons. 



Rhipidura isura. 



NORTHERN FANTAIL. 

 Rhipidura isura, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, p. 174; id., Bds. Austr., fol.. Vol. TL, pi. 85 (1848); 

 id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 242 (186.5). 



Adult male— G'snerai colour above dark greyish-hroivn ; upper wing-coverts and quills brown, 

 the secondaries narrowly edged externally with ashy-grey; tail diirk brown, the two central feathers 

 with a blackish wash; the outer web of the outermost J eather and a broad tip ivhite, the next on either 

 side with a long oval spot of white at the tip; head and ear-coverts blackish; chin and throat ivhite; 

 a broad band across the chest greyish-broivn, narrower in the centre, some oj the Jeathers with dull 

 white shaft streaks; remainder of the under surface pale buffywhite; under tail coverts white; bill 

 black; legs andjeet black; iris black. Total length 6-5 inches, iving S'U, tail .J'l bill OS, tarsus 06. 



Adult fe.male — Similar in plumage to the adult male. 



Distribution.— Norih-westem Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, North- 

 eastern Queensland. 



/T-^HIS species, which is so markedly different in colour, and cannot be confused with any 

 ±. other member of the genus inhabiting Australia, is distributed over the Northern, 

 North-eastern, and North-western portions of the continent. Mr. Kendal Broadbent obtamed 

 adults and young in the scrubs near Cardwell in 1877; Messrs. Cairn and Grant procured 

 examples near Boar Pocket on the table-lands of the Bellenden Ker Range, in 1888; Mr. A. 

 Morton obtained adults, and the nest and eggs at Port Essington in 1879; and Mr. E. J. 

 Cairn procured adults and young at Derby, North-western-Australia, in 1886. In the same 



