132 MUSCICAPID.E. 



locality, the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower obtained adult specimens, also the nest and eggs, in 

 October, 1886. 



In the more flattened and broader bill, and the s(]uarer form of its tail feathers, this species 

 diflfers somewhat from the typical members of the genus Rhipidum. All the adult specimens I 

 have examined agree with Gould's original description in having the three outer tail feathers 

 tipped with white. Dr. Sharpe, in describing Rhipidnra sdosa in the " Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum,"^-' of which he ranks the present species, J?, isin'n, as a synonym, writes:— 

 "tail blackish, the penultimate feather slightly tipped with white, often absent, the outermost 

 feather broadly tipped with white." 



Mr. Grant informs me that in habits this species resembles the Black and White Fantail 

 (Sauloproda melaleuca), keeping to the more open parts, or margins of the scrubs, and never 

 being met with in the dense brush. Tlie stomachs of those specimens he examined contained 

 various kinds of insects and their JarvEe. 



A nest of this species in the Australian Museum, taken near Port Darwin, in 1^79,13 

 similar to that of /?. albiscapa, but is slightly larger and not so compactly formed. It is 

 composed entirely of very thin strips of bark woven together with spider's web, and has no 

 special lining. The nest is built at the junction of a fine three-pronged branch and the stem- 

 like appendage at the bottom of it is worked around a twig growing below the fork on which it 

 is placed. It measures externally two inches and a quarter in diameter, by two inches in 

 depth: the inner cup one inch and a ([uarter in diameter by one inch in depth; and the tail- 

 like appendage below the nest proper one inch and a half. 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, and can hardly be distinguished from those 

 of small eggs of Sanloprocia melaleuca. They are oval in form, the shell being close-grained, 

 smooth, and almost lustreless. The ground colour is a pale creamy-white, being slightly 

 richer on the larger end, where there is a well defined zone of dull wood-brown spots, 

 intermingled witli a few small and indistinct underlying dots of pale bluish-grey. Length: — 

 (A) 07 X 0-58 inches; (15) 071 x 0.57 inches. Another set of two, taken near Cardwell, North- 

 eastern Queensland, measures: — (A) 07 x 0-55 inches; (B) 0-69 x 0-55 inches. 



Young birds resemble the aduUs, but have the primary coverts and secondaries tipped 

 with buff, and the tips of the greater wing-coverts with buffy-white; over the eye a short white 

 streak; the throat washed with buflf; the greyish-brown band on the chest not so distinct; and 

 the remainder of the under surface buff, ^^'ing 3-2 inches. 



October and the three following months constitute the breeding season of this species. 



Sauloprocta melaleuca. 



BLACK AND WHITE FANTAIL. 

 Muscicajja tricolor, VieiU., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., torn. XXI., p. 4:^0 (1818). 

 Muscipeta melaleuca, Quoy et Gaim., Voy. de I'Astrol., Zool., toiu. I., p.. 180 (1830). 

 Bhipidura motacilloides, Vig. and Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. XV., p. 248 (1826); Gould, Bds. 



Austr., fol.. Vol. II., pi. 86 (1848). 

 Sauloprocta motacilloidea, Gould, Handhk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 244 (1865). 

 Rhipidura tricolor, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. .Brft. Mas., Vol. IV., p. .3:W (1879). 

 Sauloprocta melaleuca, Salvad., Orn. Pap. et Molucc, Pt. II., p. 48 (1881). 



Cat. Bds. Brit. Miis., Vol. iv.. p. 329 (1879). 



