162 MUSCICAPID.E. 



was met with in isolated pairs, near tracks in the densest part of the scrub: and during my 

 many visits to that district, it was never observed in the gardens or clearings around the houses. 

 Its food consists principally of small insects and their lar\je. Dr. L. Holden states in his 

 MS. notes that he has frequently observed this species in different parts of the north-western 

 coast of Tasmania, sometimes in the depths of the forest, occasionally in low gum trees on the 

 road-side, and once in a garden at Stanley. The latter, a fine old male, was very tame, and 

 had been about there several days, picking up insects, worms, etc. Near Hobart, he has often 

 noted them in the upper forest on Mount Wellington, and also at the foot of the falls of the 

 creek which gives its name to the Russell's Falls River. 



Dr. A. M. Morgan informs me that he has observed this species in the Mount Lofty 

 Ranges, near Adelaide, in most seasons of the year, and that he has seen immature birds, and 

 heard of its nest being taken, although he had ne\'er taken it himself. 



A nest of this species, received from Mr. E. D. .\tkinson, and taken by Mr. George 

 Hinsby, near Hobart, on the 22nd October, 1888, is a very neat and beautiful cup-shaped 

 structure, outwardly composed of green moss and spiders' webs, and is lined inside with the 

 down from the freshly budded fronds of the tree fern. The rirn is thick and rounded, and the 

 whole exterior is profusely decor^ited with pale green lichens. It measures externally two 

 inches and three-quarters in diameter by two inches and a half in depth. This nest wtis built 

 at the junction of a horizontal forked branch of a Leptospcrmiuii, at a height of ten feet from the 

 ground. Tlie tree was near the roadside at the head of Kangaroo Valley, under Mount 

 Wellington. The female was sitting, and the nest contained three fresh eggs. I received 

 a similar nest, built on the top of a moss-grown horizontal fork, from Mr. E. Pakenham 

 while at Childers, South Gippsland. It was built in a Musk lA^tcr argophylla), growing 

 in a fern gully near his house, and it contained a single fresh egg. 



One of the most beautiful specimens of bird architecture I have seen is a nest of this 

 species tn the Group collection of the .Australian Museum. Externally it measures two inches 

 and three-quarters in diameter by two inches and a half in depth; the inner cup, which is 

 chiefly lined with opossum fur, measuring two inches in diameter by one inch and a quarter in 

 depth. It was procured by Mr. Atkinson and his son at Waratah, Mount BischofT, on the 

 22nd November, 1902, when it contained three fresh eggs. 



The eggs are three in number for a sitting, and are rounded o\al in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, and its surface smooth and lustreless. The ground colour is of a dull greenish- 

 white, which is minutely dotted and spotted with pale or yellowish-brown, more particularly 

 on the thicker end, where the markings are larger and intermingled with faint underlying spots 

 of lilac-grey. Others have the markings richer and darker, but as a rule the outer ones are of 

 a shade of brown, and the underlying ones of a lilac or purplish-grey. Whether large or small 

 they are all of irregular shape, and predominate on the thicker end, where in some specimens 

 a more or less well defined zone is formed. Some eggs, although differing in the tint of ground 

 colour, bear a resemblance in the colour and character of their markings to those of Rhipidtira 

 albiscapa, but are of course much larger. Two eggs of a set of three, taken at Mount 

 Wellington, Tasmania, in October, 1888, measure: — Length (.A) 0-65 x 0-56 inches; (B) o-66 

 X 0-55 inches. 



October and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season of this 

 species. 



