180 MUSCICAPID.E. 



In its actions the Large-headed Robin closely resembles Eopsaltria aiistralis, clinging side- 

 ways to the tree-trunks, and turning round its head to watch an intruder. In the Upper 

 Clarence District, it was only seen in the dense and luxuriant vegetation of the brush-covered 

 creeks and never in the partially cleared or open forest lands. 



The nest is a cup-shaped structure, formed throughout of dried strips of lawyer vine 

 leaves, fibre, and thin scales of bark, bound round and held together with spiders' webs, and 

 externally coated with green mosses, decorated here and there with pieces of lichen. An 

 average nest measures two inches and three-quarters in outer diameter by two inches and a 

 half in depth, the inner cup measuring one inch and three-quarters in diameter by one 

 inch and a half in depth. It is generally built in the angle formed by the upright stem and 

 the projecting leaves of a lawyer-vine, sometimes at the junction of a horizontal forked vine, 

 and occasionally in the forked upright branch of a low tree. 



The eggs are usually two in number for a sitting, oval or rounded oval in form, the shell 

 being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. Typically they vary in ground colour from 

 a very faint greenish-white to pale green, which is freckled, spotted, or blotched with yellowish- 

 brown, wood-brown; or chestnut-brown, the markings in some specimens being fleecy, clouded, 

 and indistinct, in others being well defined and in strong contrast to the ground colour. As a 

 rule they predominate on the thicker end where a more or less well defined zone is sometimes 

 formed. A set of two, taken by Mr. G. Savidge, measures as follows: — Length {A) 0-85 x 0-62 

 inches; (B) 0-84 x 0-62 inches. Another set, taken on the ij'.h November, 1901, in the 

 Solferino Scrub, in the Upper Clarence District, measures: — (A) 078 x 0-65 inches: (B) o-8 x 

 0-65 inches. An egg in Mr. George Savidge's collection is slightly rounded oval in form, and 

 of a pale bluish-white ground colour, which is distinctly spotted and blotched around the 

 larger end with purplish-brown, intermingled with smaller and fainter underlying markings 

 of the same colour; over the remainder of the shell are scattered irregular-shaped dots and 

 blotches of light umber-brown, with here and there a small dark purplish-brown spot. Length 

 0-75 X 0-59 inches. In the same nest with this egg was also taken a very well marked egg of 

 the Square-tailed Cuckoo. 



Immature birds have the feathers of the head dull rufous-brown, and some of the feathers 

 of the back, rump, throat, and fore-neck tipped with the same colour. 



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

 species. 



PcBcilodryas nana. 



KtJFOUS-LORED ROBIN. 

 Eopsaltria nana, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. IT., p. 372 (1877). 

 Pcecilodryas nana, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. JIus., Vol. IV., p. 246 (1879) 



Adult male — General colour above olive-green ; head and hind-neck dark brotvn ; upper wing- 

 coverts like the back; quills dark broitm, externally edged tvith olive green; tail feathers dark brown 

 narrowly margined with olive-green on their outer 7vehs and indistinctly edged with while at the 

 tips ; lores white washed ■>vith rufous, the latter colour becoming more pronounced on the feathers in 

 front of and a ring almost surroundirig the eye; ear-coverts brown; throat OMd fore-neck u-hite ; 

 remainder of the under surface yellow, washed with olive-green on the sides of tlie breast and flanks ; 

 under tail-coverts yellow, slightly tinged with buff: bill black; legs and feet flesh colour ; iris brorvn. 

 Total length Ji:5 inches, wing 2'!), tail 1'95, bill O'JfO, tarsus 75. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 

 Distribution. — North-eastern Queensland. 



