194 MUSCICAPID.E. 



found that the nest had been torn away from the branch. The birds commenced at once to build 

 in another saphng near at hand, but forsook it two days afterwards, and selected the very same 

 spot where their nest had been taken from a few days before. Here precisely the same nest- 

 building operations were repeated. This nest took fourteen days to complete. On the 29th 

 October it contained one egg, when I cut the branch on which it was built off the tree. This 

 nest is now in the Australian Museum collection. Leaving home for a few weeks, I saw no 

 more of this pair of birds, but was informed by Mr. C. G. Johnston that they started to build 

 again on the next branch, which he pulled off as he knew there was not the slightest chance 

 of their rearing any young. Finally, on their commencing to build again, he uprooted the 

 sapling. It can only be conjectured what induced the birds to select this particular sapling 

 after having their nests destroyed so many times, for it was surrounded for some distance by 

 others similar to it. Probably it was due to the fact that the stem was thickly infested with 

 scale and overrun with ants, for it is well known that this species evinces a decided preference 

 for trees infested with these industrious insects. Subsequently I had many opportunities of 

 watching the nest-building process, and in every instance it was similar to that previously 

 described. These birds are not easily disturbed. A nest at Roseville I wanted to send to a 

 friend, I removed from the branch of a sapling during a thunderstorm, believing the full number 

 of eggs had been deposited, but found, on making a closer examination, that it contained only two. 

 Putting a small hole through the upper portion of the structure, I passed it half way down a 

 thin dead twig. On the following day 1 found one of the birds singing in the tree, but the twig 

 had been broken off and the nest was lying on the grass, with tlie full complement of three 

 perfect eggs. 



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

 oval in form, the shell being close-grained, and its surface smooth and lustreless. The ground 

 colour varies from pure white to dull reddish-white, wliich is more or less obscured by 

 innumerable fine freckles, dots, and irregular-shaped spots of either dull red, pinkish-red, or 

 faint purplish-red, the markings being larger and predominating on the thicker end, where in 

 many specimens a well defined cap or zone is sometimes formed. Two unusually marked 

 eggs, taken from the nest figured, are pure white with a heavy zone on the larger end, formed 

 of confluent blotches of pale purplish-red; the remainder of the shell, with the exception of a 

 few small freckles, being devoid of markings. A set of three measures as follows: — Length 

 (A) 075 X 0-48 inches; (B) 076 x 0-5 inches; (C) 075 x 0-49 inches. A set of two measures: — ■ 

 (A) 0-68 X 0-48 inches; (B) 0-67 x 0-48 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but liave no white loral streak; the ear-coverts are pale 

 brown, the feathers on the forehead are washed with yellow, and the cheeks and throat are of 

 a uniform dull yellow like the remainder of the under surface. Wing 2 inches. 



In New South Wales nidification seldom commences before the middle of September, and 

 the nest usually takes from eleven to fourteen days to complete. Both sexes work assiduously 

 at its construction, the male stopping now and again to relieve the tediousness of nest-building 

 with his pleasing and cheerful song. , The eggs are deposited on each succeeding day, and the 

 task of incubation occupies about twelve days. Nests containing fresh eggs are more often 

 found in the neighbourhood of Sydney during the month of October, but I have obtained them 

 as late as the 30th December. The female sits very close, and will occasionally allow herself 

 to be handled, rather than forsake her eggs or young. 



I have frequently taken the eggs of the Bronze Cuckoo (Lamprococcyx plagosus) and the 

 Rufous-tailed Bronze Cuckoo (L. hasalis) from the nests of this species. 



