ABSES. 139 



From Kuranda, on the Upper Barron River, the late Mr. W. S. Day wrote to me as 

 follows: — " Kaup's Flycatcher is fairly common in the scrub lands of the Barron, Mulgrave, 

 Russell, and Johnstone Rivers, its favourite haunts being near a running stream. It has a 

 pretty way of erecting the white frill around its neck, and often clings or runs up the stem of a 

 tree like a Tree-creeper. During flight the tail is spread in a similar manner to that of the 

 Rufous-fronted Flycatcher; and its strikingly contrasted plumage renders it a remarkably 

 conspicuous bird when seen flying about the scrub." 



Mr. Grant also writes: — ".Vmong the luxuriant foliage, and dark stained tree-trunks of the 

 giants of the forest of the Bellenden Ker Range, one's attention is frequently arrested by the 

 lively actions and conspicuous plumage of Kaup's Flycatcher. When first seen creeping or 

 running up and down trunks of trees, it gives one the impression that it is a species of Tree- 

 creeper and not a Flycatcher. With half-open wings and crest erect, it swiftly traverses the 

 trunks or branches of trees, ever and anon thrusting its bill into some little cavity or tearing 

 off a loose piece of bark in search of food which consists of various kinds of insects, principally 

 small moths and their larvae." 



From the Bloomfield River District, North-eastern Queensland, Mr. Frank Hislop has 

 also favoured me with the following: — "Kaup's Flycatcher, although sometimes seen in the 

 open forest land, always builds in or just at the edge of the scrub. The nest is a small open 

 basket-like structure, suspended between two pieces of vine or attached to a pendant branch. 

 It is formed of vinelets and thin twigs, interwoven together, and is ornamented on the outside 

 with pieces of lichen fastened on with cobwebs. \'ery often it is built in a tree or vines over- 

 hanging a road cut in the scrub, and is usually between twenty and thirty feet from the ground. 

 Two eggs are laid for a sitting, and the breeding season is in November and December." 



A nest of this species in the National Museum, Melbourne, taken in the Bloomfield River 

 District, is an open cup-shaped structure, and resembles in form a miniature hanging basket, 

 being attached on both sides, which are slightly raised, to two thin pendant parallel stems of a 

 vine. It is formed of the thin dried stalks of a small fern, bound round and held together on 

 the outside with spiders' webs, and ornamented with large pieces of lichen; the inside being 

 lined with fine hair-like rootlets. Externally it averages two inches and a half in diameter, and 

 its greatest depth at the sides two inches and a half, the inner cup averaging one inch and four- 

 fifths in diameter by a depth of one inch and a half. 



Young birds are duller in colour than the female,' and have the lower portion of the back 

 and the rump brownish-grey; upper tail-coverts blackish-brown; wings and tail brown; the 

 feathers on the hind-neck being broadly tipped with dull black, and those on the chin and 

 throat having brownish-black bases giving it a mottled appearance; band on the breast dusky- 

 brown, with pale brown tips to most of the feathers; bill yellowish-brown at the base, blackish- 

 brown at the tip. Wing 2-8 inches. 



Arses lorealis. 



WHITK-LOKED i'LYCATCHER. 

 Arses lorealis, De Vis., Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.'W., 2rid ser., Vol. X., p. 171 (1895). 



Adult male — Croivn of the head, nape, face, feathers below the eye and the ear-coverts (flossy 

 black; collar on the hind-neck white; scapulars and mantle black, with a slight gloss, the former 

 largely tipped with white, also the feathers of the lower mantle; lower portion of the back and the 

 rump blackish-grey, with white tips to all the feathers; upper tail-coverts black; tail brownish-black ; 

 upper wing -coverts like the mantle; quills brownish-black; lores white; chin, all the under surface, 

 and under tail-coverts while ; bill black ; legs and feet black ; iris dark brown; orbital wattle bright 

 blue. Total length 5 inches, wing Jl, tail 2-8, bill OJfi, tarsus 0-72. 



