134 MUSCICAPID.E. 



the air, and with a vicious little snap secures its prey, returning again to the same place to pull 

 it to pieces and eat it. Mr. Frank Hislop informs me that he has frequently seen this species 

 feasting on ticks infesting cattle, in the Bloomfield River District, North-eastern Queensland. 

 So tame do these birds become, if unmolested about country houses, that they will feed out of 

 their protector's hands. From the Reed-beds, near Adelaide, Mr. W. White writes me: — 

 "There is a pair of Sauloprocta motacilloides been about here for several years. They nest in a 

 tree close to my house, and have two broods of three or four every season. If I call them, 

 they are so tame that they will fly down and perch on my finger and feast on any dainty I have 

 for them in the palm of my hand. They have a great liking to rest on the toe of my boot 

 while I am sitting down." While in the garden at " Holmfirth," adjoining the residence of 

 ■Mr. White, Mr. J. H. IMellor pointed out to me the young of a pair of birds that used to 

 feed out of his hands. Both Mr. White and Mr. Mellor have encouraged and protected the 

 native birds for many years, and their estates are secure havens and breeding-grounds for 

 many species. 



The nest is a round cup-shaped structure, outwardly formed of fine strips or shreds of 

 bark, woven and held together with cobwebs, the rim and exterior portion of the nest being 

 thickly coated with cobwebs, making it resemble an excrescence of the tree; inside it is neatly 

 lined with fibrous roots, and sometimes with horse-hair or cow-hair. An average nest measures 

 externally three inches in diameter, by two inches and a half in deptir, internally two inches 

 and a quarter by one inch and a quarter in depth. Usually it is built on a horizontal branch, 

 or at the junction of one or more thin forked branches, and frequently on one overhanging water. 

 I have also seen it built on fallen branches, and on rare occasions in high trees a considerable 

 distance from any stream. Preference is given for smooth-barked trees as nesting sites, and 

 mostly for gums or wattles. A favourite situation is in a willow-tree overhanging a river, pond, 

 or ornamental sheet of water, also in fruit-trees. Nests are often built on the foundation of the 

 old ones of previous seasons, or are placed close to an old one. The average height at which 

 they are built is from eight to twenty feet, but I have found them as low as three feet, and in rare 

 instances as high as forty feet. Curious nesting-sites are sometimes selected; one nest I saw 

 was built on a bare fiat plank which extended over a water-hole out on a plain ; another, in the 

 South Australian Museum, Adelaide, is built in a loop of thick rope; and in the same institution 

 is one built at the junction of two crossed fencing-wires. The late Mr. K. H. Bennett also 

 took the eggs of this species at Yandembah, from a nest constructed of wool and built inside 

 the deserted nest of a Magpie-Lark. I have on several occasions found the nest of the Black 

 and White Fantail in the same tree as the nest of the Magpie-Lark. Recently I saw occupied 

 nests of both species in a tree on a vacant block of land in one of the principal streets of 

 Chatswood. 



From Adelaide, Dr. A. M. Morgan writes : — " A pair of Sauloprocta motacilloides were constantly 

 about my house at Laura, one hundred and forty miles north of this city, and built every 

 year in the garden. In 1895 they constructed a nest in an apricot tree near my surgery 

 window, which was lined entirely with hair taken from the back of my cat. On the first 

 day, the cat tried all she could to catch them, but although her claws were often within an 

 inch or two of the birds, she never succeeded in getting them. The air of indignant surprise 

 on the part of the birds at the cat's remonstrance, was most ludicrous. After the first day, the 

 cat made no attempt to catch them, but calmly allowed herself to be despoiled." 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes four in number for a sitting, and vary in form from 

 oval to elongate-oval, some specimens being somewhat sharply pointed at the smaller end, the 

 shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. Typically they vary in ground colour 

 from pale creamy-brown to creamy- and yellowish -white, and have usually a well defined zone 

 of confluent dots and spots on the larger end, or around the centre of the shell, of dark 



