196 MUSCICAPID.E. 



From Gould's figure and typical examples of Gerygone fusca obtained in New South Wales, 

 these birds may be distinguished by the earth-brown hue of the upper parts, the lighter under 

 surface, which is devoid of the greyish wash on the throat and sides of the head, and of the 

 rich buff wash on the flanks, abdomen, and under tail-coverts; the spot in front of the eye 

 is darker, and the lores and line over the eye a purer white. Whether these birds from Boar 

 Pocket, w-hich I propose to distinguish under the name of Gerygone pallida, will prove to be 

 only a northern race of G. fusca, or a distinct species, I am unable to determine until I have 

 had an opportunity of examining a series of specimens from different localities, intermediate 

 between Wide Bay and Rockingham Bay. 



Gergyone fusca is a resident species in the northern coastal rivers districts of New South 

 Wales, its range extending as far south as the neighbourhood of Sydney. In the palm brushes 

 about Tuggerah Lake, Ourimbah, and Gosford, it is common; and it is also found in the 

 humid mountain gullies on the highlands of the Milson's Point railway line. I noted it at 

 Roseville in October, igo2, and once procured a specimen in a scrub-lined creek intersecting 

 open forest lands at Blacktown. Mr. George Masters informs me that in 1875 '' ^^'^-S common 

 in the late Sir William Macleay"s garden at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney. Although a similar 

 vegetation flourishes in the Illawarra District as about Ourimbah and Gosford, and many 

 brush-frequenting species are common to the two districts, I have never observed it there nor 

 have I seen it represented in any of the numerous collections made in that part of the State. 

 It is strictly an inhabitant of the coastal districts and contiguous mountain ranges, and is not 

 found in the dry inland portions of New South Wales. In habits it resembles very much the 

 Acanihiza, hopping about among the leafy sprays or trailing vines in search of minute insects, 

 which constitute its sole food. 



Unlike Gergyone alhigularis, it is possessed of but feeble powers of song, although if it is 

 once heard it can easily be distinguished from that of any other species, even at some distance 

 away. Its half sibilant, half whistling spring notes resemble the sounds of the words "What 

 is it? what is it ?" repeated several times. At the end of summer and in the autumn these 

 notes are seldom uttered. 



The nest is a dome-shaped structure, with a narrow bottle-neck like entrance, and has 

 usually several inches of superfluous nesting-material below the domed portion. Outwardly it 

 is formed of green mosses, with a slight admixture of spiders' web, the inner walls consisting 

 entirely of very fine and soft bark fibre, which is again warmly and thickly lined at the bottom 

 with soft silky plant-down, and sometimes with fur or feathers. Externally it is beautifully 

 ornamented with pieces of pale greenish-grey lichens. In some nests the inner walls have 

 long fine black hair-like rootlets, and skeletons of small leaves worked into them. The domed 

 portion only has an inner lining; above and below it the structure is formed almost entirely of 

 moss. An average nest measures nine inches in total length, of which the domed portion or 

 nest proper measures four inches in height by two inches and a half in diameter; and the 

 upper side of the neck-like entrance one inch and a quarter by five-eighths of an inch across 

 the aperture. The nests, however, vary much in size, according to the length of the tail-like 

 appendage beneath it. In seven nests found by me at Ourimbah, in November, 1901, the 

 length of superfluous nesting material varied from two inches and a (juarter to five inches, and 

 the upper side of the spout-like entrance from three-quarters of an inch te three inches. 

 Occasionally nests may be found with the domed portion neatly rounded off at the bottom. 

 Little or no preference seems to be shown in the choice of a tree or vine as a nesting-site. In 

 the scrubs of the northern coastal rivers it is often suspended to a Lawyer-vine (Calamus 

 australis). About Ourimbah and Gosford I found them attached to a thin leafy spray of a 

 Lilli-pilly (Eugenia smithii). Maiden's Blush (Sloanea australis), Sassafras (Doryphora sassafras), 

 Coachwood (Crystapetalum apetalum), or to a prickly \ine or Bramble (Riihus uworei), or a 



