190 MUSCICAPID.E. 



The call-note of this species is a clear whistling double-note, remarkably loud for the size 

 of the bird, and somewhat resembling that of the Mistletoe-bird ( Diiirum hiriindinaceum). 



The nests are small, round, oval, or pear-shaped structures, with a narrow spout-like 

 entrance near the top, and vary in size and the materials of which they are formed according 

 to the localities in which they are built. I'sually they are outwardly constructed of fine wiry 

 grasses, spiders' cocoons and webs, woven securely together, and lined inside with feathers or 

 small dried flowers; in others mosses or feathers are worked into the outer walls, and I have 

 seen them formed throughout of green grass stems, held together with spiders' web and 

 cocoons, and without any special lining. An average one measures externally two inches and 

 a half in diameter by three inches and a half in length, and across the spout-like entrance 

 near the top one inch. The nests are generally attached at the back or sides to the thin leafy 

 twigs near the top of a gum sapling, or to the thin upright rigid stems of a tea-tree, at a height 

 varying from seven to thirty feet from the ground. At Narrabri, in November, 1S96, I found 

 them built in the low drooping leafy stems of some of the larger gum trees. 



The eggs, usually two, sometimes three in number for a sitting, are oval or elongate-oval in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. They vary in ground colour 

 from creamy-bufTand pale vinous-brown to a dull bufTy-white, which is minutely freckled either 

 with buffy-brown, purplish-brown, or slaty-brown, the markings in some specimens being 

 uniformly distributed over the shell, but as a rule predominating on the larger end where a 

 more or less well defined zone is sometimes formed. Others ha\e only an indistinct clouded 

 zone or cap on the larger end, of a slightly darker hue than the ground colour. A set of two, 

 taken in Central Queensland, measures as follows: — Length (A) o-6i x 0-47 inches; (B) 0-62 x 

 0-49 inches. A set of two, taken in New South' Wales, measures: — (A) 0-62 x 0-43 inches; 

 (B) o'6 X 0-44 inches. An elongate set measures: — (A) 0-62 x 0-44 inches; (B) 0-67 x 0-43 

 inches. A set of three, taken in the Wimmera District, Victoria, measures: — (A) 0-53 x 0'4i 

 inches; (B) 0-55 x 0-41 inches; (C) 0-55 x 0-42 inches. 



Fledgelings assume the plumage of the adults shortly after leaving the nest. 



Probably two or more broods are reared during the breeding season, which begins in July, 

 and continues the five following months. I have taken fresh eggs as early as the 5th August, 

 and as late as the 6th November. That they may be found much later is proved by my seeing 

 fledgelings that had just left the nest at the end of January. 



Smicrornis flavescens. 



YELLOW-TINTED SCRUB-TIT. 

 Smicrornis flavescens, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 134; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. II., pi. 104 

 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 274 (1865); Sharps, Oat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 

 Vol. IV., p. 210 (1879); North, Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Central Austr., Pt. II., Zool., p. 84, 

 (1896). 

 Adult male — General colour above olive-yelloiv, brighter on the rump : upper tailcoverts like 

 the back; upper wingcoverts and quills ashy-broivn, margined with olive-yellow ; tail feathers ashy- 

 brown, externally edged with olive-yellow, and crossed with a subterminal black band, except on the 

 two central feathers, the four outermost feathers with a spot of white near the tip of the inner 

 web; crown of the head brown, washed tvith olive-yelloiv ; lores and an indistinct eyebroiv buffy- 

 white; ear-coverts pale rufous brown; feathers on the chin and upper throat pale yellowish-white; 

 remainder of the under surface yellow, becoming a deeper yellow on the abdomen and flanks; under 

 tail-coverts pale yellow; bill and feet pale fleshy-broion; iris slraiv-u:hite. Total length 3 3 inches, 

 wing 19, tail IS, bill 22 tarsus OSa. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



