MVIAGRA 143 



with greenish-black; lores and sides of the head dull black; crown of the head dull greenish- 

 black. Wing 3-2 inches. 



October and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of this species 

 in North-eastern Australia, but 1 ha\e examined many nests and sets of fresh eggs that were 

 collected in the Northern Territory of South Australia during December, January, and February. 



O-en-O-S 3yC"!iri-A.<3-I2-<^, Vii/ors d; Horsjield. 



Myiagra rubecula. 



LEADEN-COLOURED FLYCATCHER. 

 Tochis rubecida, Lath., [ud. ( Ini., Suppl., p. .\.\xii., (1801). 

 Myiayra plumhea, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. II., pi. 89 (1818); id., Handbk. Bds. Au.str., Vol. 



I., p. ■2.5-2 (1865); Salv.ad., Orn. Pap. et Molucc, Pt. II., p. 7-t (1881). 

 Mijiagra rubecida, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. iVIus., Vol. IV., p. 373 (1879). 



Adult male — General co/oiir above leadeti-yrey, sliylitly glossed with steel-green, more distinct 

 on the head; quills blackish, ivashed u-ith leaden-yrey on their outer ivebs, more distinct on the inner 

 secondaries, tvhich are externally edged with ashy-white; tail feathers leaden-grey ; a narrow frontal 

 line and Jeathers in front of the eye, blackish; sides of the Jace, neck, throat, and fore-neck, slightly 

 darker than the crotvn of the head, and more strongly ivashed with steel-green ; remainder of the vnder 

 surface and the under tail-coverts ivJiite; bill dark I raden-blue, blackish at the tip; leys and feet black: 

 iris black. Total le-ngtli in the flesh G inches, icing 3' 15, tail :''7, bill O'o, tarsus IS. 



Adult female — General colour above dull leaden-grey, slightly broiuner on the back ; upper 



wing-coverts and quills brown, the secondaries externally edged ivith ashy-grey: tail-feathers broion; 



feathers below the eye and ear-coverts dnsky-broum : chin, t/iroat, and /ore-neck pale orange-buff, 



gradually becoming lighter on the breast and dull ic/i.ite on the remainder of the under surface and 



the und''r tail-coverts. 



Distribution. — North-western .Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, New Guinea. 



sIaN favourable situations the present species is distributed over the greater portion of North- 

 Jl. western, Northern, Eastern, and South-eastern Australia. It also inhabits Yule Island 

 and New Guinea, and is occasionally found in Tasmania. There is but little variation in the 

 wing-measurement of examples obtained on the Laloki River, New Guinea, and from different 

 parts of the eastern coast of Australia; the wing measurement of an adult male from the former 

 locality being the same as that of the above described male obtained close to Sydney, 3- 15 inches. 

 The loral streak, however, is not so dark as in the .Vustralian specimen. This is, I believe, 

 due to age, for even in examples obtained in the same locality, it is very much darker in some 

 specimens than others. Some adult males have a blackish wash on the feathers below the eye 

 and the ear-coverts. 



It is a strictly migratory species, arriving in New South Wales from its northern haunts 

 in Septend>er, and departing again after breeding, about the end of March. On the highlands 

 of the Milson's Point railway-line, in the neighbourhood of Sydney, I have more often noted its 

 arrival during the month of October; and I saw a female at Middle Harbour, on the 2yth May, 

 1898, but this was unusually late for it to remain. It frequents the coastal scrubs and 

 contiguous mountain ranges, and is never found far inland in the drier portions of the State. 

 Except when accompanied by its young, this species is usually met with in pairs, resorting 

 principally to the branches of the taller Eucalypti or Angophora in secluded gullies, or in forest 

 lands with a slight undergrowth. Although of extremely active habits one's attention is more 

 frecjuently directed to this species by its squeaking note, which can be heard some distance 



