184 MUSCICAPID*. 



Fledgelings are pale rufous-brown above and below, the feathers on the upper parts . 

 having distinct whitish shaft-streaks, the yellow feathers first appearing on the throat. Young 

 birds resemble the adults, but are mottled more or less with the rufous-brown feathers of youth 

 until they arrive at full maturity. Win.t; 3-3 inches. 



Eopsaltria? iiwvimta, Ramsay, from Cardwell, the type of which is in the .\ustralian 

 Museum, is a good and distinct species. Dr. Gadow* regards it as an apparently young 

 bird of Eopsaltria ciustyalis, and erroneously places E. inorimta as a synonym of that species. 

 It is doubtful if it even belongs to the senus. 



Two types of nests are figured, the decorations of the one represented on the preceding page 

 consisting entirely of lichens. I found this nest, containg three fresh eggs, at Roseville, on the 

 2ist October, igoi. It was built in a geebung, about five feet from the ground. This nest, 

 which I photographed to show its inner lining of leaves of Ctnuarimi sitberosa and outer decora- 

 tions, was only about fifty yards away from the nest represented on Plate A. -'i. The latter, 

 which contained two fresh eggs, I found on the 6th .August, i8q,S, and it was built in a Forest 

 Oak (Casuavina suberosa ) at a height of twenty feet from the ground. It measures externally 

 three inches and a quarter in diameter by a depth from the rim to the base of the nest proper 

 of three inches and a half. The pieces of bark attached to the outside are longer than usual, 

 the nest and its appendages measuring altogether in height six inches. The inner cup, which 

 is lined almost entirely with the narrow- leaves of Angophora lanccolata, measures two inches and 

 three-quarters in diameter by one inch and three-quarters in depth. 



Generally the female slips off the nest unobserved, but if it contains incubated eggs or 

 young birds, she will often remain sitting till one gets within a few feet, and sometimes will 

 allow herself to be touched before slie forsakes her charge. On one occasion I saw a pair 

 of these birds clinging to the trunk of a tree within a few feet of the ground. Both had their 

 wings and tail outspread, and which they worked in a tremulous manner. They persisted in 

 this action for nearly five minutes, without uttering a sound, until 1 betjan to search for the 

 nest, which I discovered in a tree close by, containing two young ones. I also observed a 

 female act in a similar manner while sitting on a nest, but in this instance my attention was 

 attracted to it by the bird's low plaintive note. Another nest I found at Roseville, on the 28th 

 August, i8g8, containing two young ones, was built in a Casuarina, seven feet from the ground. 

 On my approaching near it the parents puflfed out their feathers and resembled balls as they 

 rolled about the ground just in front of me in the hopes of alluring me away. This common 

 device of birds is very rarely resorted to by this species. 



During the winter of 1902 — a year of unprecedented drought — a pair of these birds \isited 

 my house daily to pick up any scraps thrown to them. They were absent for some time, but 

 returned again early in October, accompanied by two young ones. Again presumably the 

 same pair visited the garden and fences surrounding the house in January, accompanied by 

 two young ones ; they remained for three weeks, during which time the latter assumed the 

 yellow under surface like the adults, with the exception of a few rufous-brown feathers. All 

 the nests of this species I examined during 1902, contained only two eggs or two young ones. 



Nidification usually commences the first week in July, sometimes in June, the nest taking 

 about a week to build, and the eggs are deposited on each successive day. Two or three broods 

 are reared during the breeding season, which continues until the end of January. 



* Cat. Bds, Brit. Mus., Vol. viii., p. 177 (1883). 



