136 



MUSCICAPID.E. 



Adult female — Slightly duller in colour on the upper parts than the male : the triangular patch 

 of feathers in front of the eye is dusky-grey, and the throat and breast is tinged with ochraceous-buff. 



Distribution. — Queensland, New South Wales, \'ictoria. South Australia, Western Australia. 



/■ |(<^HE Restless Flycatcher is distributed over the greater portion of Queensland, New 

 J- South Wales, Victoria, South and Western Australia. It frequents alike the coastal 

 brushes, open forest and grass lands, and the margins of rivers and creeks inland. Among the 

 specimens in the Australian Museum collection, are some obtained by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and 

 R. Grant in the open parts of the scrub near Cairns, North-eastern Queensland; from the Darling 

 River, about six hundred miles west of Sydney, procured by the same collectors; and examples 

 from Mongup, Salt River, Western Australia, obtained by Mr. George Masters in January, 

 i86g. The wing measurement of all these specimens only varies from 3-95 to 4-1 inches. 

 Some adult males, however, procured in the same localities, have the throat and breast tinged 

 with buff, in others it is pure white. 



In New South Wales, Sisura iiiquieta is a permanent resident, and is fairly numerous in the 

 neighbourhood of Sydney, frequenting, in addition to its natural haunts, gardens, orchards, and 



vineyards, but it is seldom seen in the parks or gardens 

 of the city. In general appearance this bird bears a 

 striking resemblance to the Black and White Fantail, 

 but it may be easily distinguished from that species 

 by its uniform white under surface; it is also more 

 arboreal in habits. 



Although a resident species, it is morfe conspicuous 

 in spring and summer, for it is principally during 

 these seasons that its peculiar grinding note is uttered 

 while hovering in search of insects a few feet above 

 the grassy sward, and from which it derived the local 

 name of "Grinder." When perched on the end of a 

 dead branch — a favourite position of this species — 

 it also frequently utters a single harsh note, which is 

 ■sometimes varied with a clear whistling double-note 

 resembling "tu-whee tu-whee." During autumn and 

 winter it is almost silent, and its singular whirring 



note is seldom heard. It is very tame, and solitary examples often visit my garden and the 



fences surrounding the house. 



The food of this species consists chiefly of insects of various kinds, principally flies, small 

 moths, and butterflies, captured more frequently while on the wing. It also eats caterpillars, 

 and materially assists in ridding orchards of many injurious pests. 



The nests of the Restless Flycatcher vary considerably in size and in the materials of 

 which they are composed. Typically they are neat round cup-shaped structures, built of very 

 fine strips of stringy bark, bound round and held together with spiders' webs, the exterior 

 being more or less decorated with lichens, and the inside lined with fur or hair. An average 

 nest measures externally three inches and a half in diameter by two inches and a half in depth; 

 internal diameter two inches and a half, depth one inch and a half. A nest in the Australian 

 Museum collection, taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at Yandembah, is formed of strips 

 of bark and grasses, thickly and evenly coated externally with wool, the rim of the nest 

 being nicely rounded, and the inside lined with white fowls' feathers. It measures externally 

 four inches in diameter by three inches in depth; internal diameter two inches and a half, by 

 one inch and a half in depth. 



RESTLESS FLYCATCHER 



