MICRCECA. 



151 



The eggs are usually two, rarely three in number for a sitting, and vary considerably 

 in shape, size, and disposition of their markings. Ovals are most common, but elongate-ovals 

 and ellipses in form are not infrequently found, the shell being close-grained and its surface 

 dull and lustreless. They are of a pale greenish-blue ground colour, which is freckled, spotted, 

 and blotched with purplish-brown, intermingled with similar underlying markings of greyish- 

 lilac. All the markings are irregularly shaped, in some specimens they are evenly distributed 

 over the shell, in others they predominate on the larger end and there form a cap, or a more or 

 less well-defined zone. An unusually marked set of two I have before me is longitudinally 

 streaked, particularly on the larger end, with very pale purplish and umber-brown, intermingled 

 with similar underlying streaks and a few freckles of dull greyish-lilac; the markings on this 

 set resemble in character those on the eggs of the different species of Rifle-birds. When fresh, 

 the eggs of the Brown Flycatcher become more beautiful and richer in ground colour directly 

 they are blown, but they soon commence to fade when perfectly dry, and in a few weeks the 

 ground colour is as pale as when first found, with the neutralising tint of the yolk showing 



through the semi-transparent 

 shell. A normal sized set of 

 three, taken at Canterbury, near 

 Sydney, measures as follows : — 

 Length (A) o-8 x 0-58 inches; 

 (B) 078 X 0-57 inches; (C) 079 

 X 0-56 inches. An elongate set 

 of two, taken in the same dis- 

 trict, measures: — (A) 0-85 x 0-53 

 inches; (B) 0-84 x 0-54 inches. 

 A set of two, taken at Chats- 

 wood, measures : — (A) 076 x 

 0-57 inches; (B) 075 x 0-58 

 inches. 



Dr. W. Macgillivray writes 

 me: — "I have taken nests of 

 Micraca fascinans, with eggs early 

 in January. On ons occasion, 

 when climbing to one of their 



BROWN FLVCATCHERS (NESTLINGS.) ^^^^jg^ ^^.:^^^ j ^^.^^ q^^tg ^ear it 



the bird flew on to the nest and turned the egg out with her bill. It fell over twenty feet 

 on to a mass of maiden-hair fern, without breaking, and is now a perfect specimen in my 

 collection." 



Nestlings are blackish-brown above, each feather having a sagittate marking of brownish- 

 white at the tip; lesser and median upper wing-coverts like the back; the greater series brown 

 tipped with pale brown ; primaries and secondaries dark brown, externally margined and tipped 

 with pale brown; a spot in front of the eye blackish; all the under surface white, the feathers 

 of the fore-neck and breast having a spot of blackish-brown towards the tip; under tail- 

 coverts white; bill greyish-black; gape yellow; legs and feet fleshy-grey; iris blackish-brown. 

 Wing 1-8 inches. The nestlings figured were taken at Chatswood on the 31st October, 1901, 

 from a nest in a Rough-barked Apple-tree. On the following day they were photographed at 

 the Australian Museum, and 1 returned them to their anxious parents the same afternoon. 



Young birds are similar, but have the sagittate markings on the upper parts smaller, lores 

 blackish, and the feathers on the fore-neck and sides of the breast more distinctly spotted with 

 blackish-brown. Wing 3-2 inches. 



