152 MCSCICAPID.E. 



August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season, but I have 

 known of several nests being found with eggs in July, and I have seen young birds that had 

 not long left the nest being fed by their parents as late as the 6th of February. Two broods 

 are reared during the season, but a fresh nest is built for each brood. Only on one occasion 

 have I known this species to deposit its eggs in the same nest in the following season. 



At Belmore, near Sydney, a nest of this species was found containing two eggs, also the 

 egg of the Bronze Cuckoo (Lmnpvococcyx plagosus). Mr. G. A. Keartland informs me that 

 the e"g of the Square-tailed Cuckoo (Cacomantis variolosusj has been taken from a nest of this 

 species in Mctoria. 



In the trees surrounding my house at Roseville, I observed during the first week in 

 February, 1903, a pair of Brown Flycatchers assiduously attending to the wants of a young 

 Pallid Cuckoo. The wearisome cries of the latter as it followed its diminutive foster parents 

 for food, continued with but short intervals from early morning until long after sunset. In the 

 same paddock, a pair of Black and White Fantails was simultaneously engaged in satisfying 

 the cravings of another young Pallid Cuckoo. 



Micrceca pallida. 



PALLID FLYCATCHER. 

 Micrceca pallida, De Vis, Proc. Roy. Soc. Queensld., Vol. I., p. 159 (1884); North, Rec. Austr. 



Mus., Vol. III., p. 107 (1899). 

 Micrceca assimilis, (nee Gould), Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., 2nd ser., Vol. I., p. 1089 (1886). 

 Micrceca fascinans, (nee Lath.), Keartl., Proc. Roy. Soc. South Austr., Vol. XXII., p. 17+ (1898). 



Adult m.\le General colour above pale ashy-brown ; upper tail-coverts blackish-brown ; lesser 



and median coverts like the back : the greater series brown, with indistinct whitish margins : quills 

 dark brown, the primaries narrowly edged externally for three-fourths of their length and tipped 

 with white; the secondaries margined and tipped with white; two outermost tail feathers on either 

 side white; the next white, blackish-brown at the base; the remainder blackish-brown, tipped with 

 white, the tips decreasing in size towards the central pair, tvhich are entirely blackish-brotcn ; lores 

 and an indistinct eyebrow dull white; all the under surface white, tinged with pale ashy-hrotvn on ' 

 the chest and sides of the body: under tail coverts white; bill dark brown; base of the lower 

 mandible pale brown; leys and feet blackish-broivn. Total length Jf-3 inches, wing S, tail 2, bill 

 O'S, tarsus O'O. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the mate. 

 Distribution.— Northern Queensland, North-western Australia. 

 /"l^HE Pallid Flycatcher is the representative in the northern portions of the continent of 

 i the preceding species Micrceca fascinans, from which it may be easily recognised by its 

 much smaller size and paler colour. It was discovered by Mr. Kendal Broadbent in July, 

 1883, during a visit to Kimberley, at the mouth of the Norman River, where it enters the Gulf 

 of Carpentaria. Specimens were also obtained by Mr. E. J. Cairn, while collecting on behalf 

 of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, at Derby, North-western Australia, in 1886, Mr. 

 De Vis has, with his usual promptitude, kindly favoured me with the loan of typical specimens 

 for examination. They are similar to the examples from Derby. As in M. fascinans, there 

 is a variation in the extent of white on the wings and tail; in one specimen the three outermost 

 tail feathers on either side are pure white; an example from Derby has also a dull whitish 

 frontal streak. The wing measurement varies from 2-95 to 3-2 inches. 



