sisunA. 137 



The nest is usually placed on the top of a forked horizontal bough, often on one that is 

 dead, or built against a thin upright leafy twig. Occasionally it is formed in and around a 

 nearly upright fork. A favourite position is in an acute angle formed by a bent or distorted 

 branch. It is generally built near the extremity of a limb, and well away from the trunk of a 

 tree. The different species of Eucalypti are the trees most frequently resorted to for nesting in, 

 and the nests are built from twenty to sixty feet from the ground. There is a very pretty 

 nest of this species in the Group collection of the Australian Museum. It was built in a Forest 

 Mahogany (Eucalyptus I'csinifcni), at Eastwood, and was taken by Mr. S. W. Moore on the 

 igth November, 1899. At Roseville a pair of these birds built in a tree near my house for two 

 successive seasons, and on the tree being cut down the next one was resorted to by presumably 

 the same pair in the following season. 



The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, and vary in shape from oval and 

 rounded oval to elongate and elliptical oval, the shell being close-grained and its surface 

 smooth and slightly lustrous. They vary in ground colour from dull white to warm buffy- 

 white, and are usually marked on the larger end or around the centre of the shell with a well 

 defined band of dull purplish or chestnut-brown confluent irregular-shaped spots and blotches 

 intermingled with similar underlying markings of dull violet-grey, the remainder of the shell 

 being but sparingly spotted with the same colour or entirely free from markings. In some 

 specimens the underlying spots are larger and darker, and form a clouded band, in others they 

 are absent, while some have the spots and blotches distributed almost uniformly over the 

 surface of the shell, but as a rule they predominate on the thicker end. A set of four measures 

 as follows: — Length (A) 0-85 x 0-65 inches; (B)o-86xo-66 inches; (C) 0-84 x 0-65 inches; (D) 

 o'85 X o"65 inches. Another set of four measures: — (A) 0-78 x 0-63 inches; (B) o-yg x 0-63 

 inches; (C) 0-77 x 0-62 inches; (D) 0-77 x 0-63 inches. A set of three measures: — 0^84 x o-6 

 inches; (B) 0-83 x o'62 inches; (C) 0-82 x o-6 inches. 



Fledgelings are dusky blackish-brown above, the scapulars being largely tipped with dull 

 white; quills and upper wing-coverts dull brown, the latter having buffy- white tips; throat 

 and upper part of the breast white washed with ochraceous-buff. Wing ^--^ inches. 



At Port Augusta, South Australia, Dr. A. M. Morgan observed a pair of these birds 

 building in a huge gum tree, on the 14th August, 1900. Nidification in the neighbourhood of 

 Sydney commences generally about the first week in September; and in the northern coastal 

 districts of the State and southern parts of Queensland as early as August. Two broods are 

 reared during the season, which continues until the end of January. Before the young essay 

 their first flight, they perch on the edge of the nest, or on the branch in close proximity to it. 

 At Chatswood and Roseville I have noted, during a period of five years, the first broods 

 leaving the nests from the 3rd to the 19th of October. 



Sisura nana. 



LITTLE FLYCATCHER. 



Seisura nana, Gould, Ann. A- Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 4, Vol. VI., p. 224 (1870). 



Sisura nana, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IV., p. 408 (1883); North, Proo. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 

 Vol. XXVII., p. 207 (1902). 



Adult male — Similar to the adult male of Sisura isquiet.\, hut smaller, and the bill com- 

 paratively broader. Total lengtli 6'5 inches, wincf o'5, tail S'o, bill OS, tarsus 0'7. 



Adult female — Like the male, but having the triangular shaped patch in front of the eye 

 dusky-grey, and the throat and breast tinged with ochraceous-buff. 



Distribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, \\'estern 

 New South Wales. 



