140 MUSCICAPID.E. 



Adult fkmale Differs from the male in being duller in colour and destitute of the large 



white tips to the scapulars and feathers of the loiver mantle; the outer webs of the secondaries, both 

 webs 0/ the scapulars, and some of the greater wing-coverts are edged with rufous; the feathers of the 

 nuchal collar are narrowly tipped or subterminally barred with black, and those on the lower throat 

 are broadly tipped with pale buff, forming a band on that paH. 



Distribution. — Northern portion of Cape York Peninsula. 



/-f^HIS very distinct species was described by Mr. C. W. De \'is, m.a., the Curator of the 

 -L Queensland :Museum, from specimens obtained by Mr. Kendal Broadbent, at Cape 

 York, who states that its haunts and habits are similar to those of A. kaiipi, Gould. It is 

 remarkable that the se.\es of both species of this genus inhabiting Australia so closely resemble 

 one another, while A. telacopthalmus, A. aruensis, A. hatante, and A. insularis, found in New 

 Guinea and the Papuan islands, should be so different in colour. Mr. De \'is has been so 

 good as to lend me his types, and, through the courtesy of Dr. E. C. Stirling, Director of the 

 South Australian Museum, I have also received additional specimens from that institution for 

 e.\amination. Two of the latter birds are slightly darker and more glossy than the type 

 described by Mr. De Vis as the adult male, but both are marked as females. They are 

 labelled Arses candidior, Somerset, Cape York, and dated respectively 27th October, and 4th 

 December, 1896. Under the same name, and obtained on the 20th November, 1896, is another 

 specimen, marked male, that is indistinguishable from the adult male of .1 . rt)7(c;;s/s, differing 

 only from examples of the latter, obtained near Port Moresby, by the lower portion of the 

 black mark on the chin being more rounded in form and its slightly smaller bill. .\ fourth 

 specimen, also a male, with a mutilated bill and unlocalised, is apparently, by its make up, 

 from the same district. In the Macleay Museum there is also a similar adult male, labelled 

 Cape York, September, 1875. 



Mr. De Vis writes me as follows: — "There is evidently some misconception about Arses 

 candidior, arising doubtless from the presence of that name on the original cabinet label of 

 A.lorealis. Arses candidior seems to have been given by Mr. K. Broadbent to an enquirer 

 asking him the name of the bird; hence the idea that I have named two species of the genus." 



A nest of this species in the National Museum, Melbourne, taken at Somerset, Cape York, 

 in December, 1896, is very similar to that of its close ally A. kaupi. . It is a round open pensile 

 structure, formed externally of thin flowering plant stalks, intermingled with black and brown 

 rootlets and lightly coated with spiders' webs, the inside being lined entirely with fine black 

 rootlets. On the outer portion it is decorated with pieces of green lichen, fastened on with 

 spider's webs. Externally it measures two inches and three-quarters in diameter by three 

 inches in depth; and the inner cup two inches in diameter by one inch and a half in depth. 

 The nest is firmly attached on both sides to the thin parallel stems of a forked pendant vine, 

 which gives the structure the appearance of a hanging basket. Eggs two in number for a 

 sitting. A set kindly lent me by the late Dr. Charles Snowball, and taken at Somerset on the 

 3rd January, 1897, are oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and lustreless. 

 They are of a pale buffy- white ground colour, which is uniformly freckled with dull red; one 

 specimen having the markings darker and more pronounced on the thicker end, where are 

 intermingled a few faint purplish underlying spots. Length: — (A) 077 x 0-56 inches; (B) 076 

 X 0-55 inches. 



