198 MUSCICAPID.E. 



an entrance was made, and a spout-like tunnel formed, the latter being unusually long and well 

 developed. The bird would frequently carry material to the structure and work while I was 

 only a yard away from it. A peculiar habit this species has when building is to rapidly gyrate 

 down the structure, from the top to the bottom, fastening in the material in its descent. The 

 domed portion of the nest was then formed, filled out, and completed on the 22nd inst., or 

 twelve days from its commencement. An egg was deposited on the 23rd November, and 

 another on the 25th inst. Externally it measures nine inches in total length, and from the 

 front of the entrance across the domed portion of the structure four inches and a quarter. 

 The superfluous nesting material beneath, which consists only of mosses and lichens and is 

 thicker and more rounded than usual, measures three inches. 



Another nest which I saw commenced, and frequently watched during building opera- 

 tions, I was surprised to find on the ground fifteen days after it was begun, and the birds 

 hopping about the tree it had been in. On opening the structure, I found two recently broken 

 and slightly incubated eggs of Gerygone fusca, and one fresh and perfect egg of the Bronze 

 Cuckoo (Lamprococcyx plagosus). I concluded the weight of the latter bird had torn the nest 

 asunder, but how it managed to deposit its egg in it is a mystery to me, for the aperture of the 

 narrow spout-like entrance of the nest was barely three-quarters of an inch in width. 



The breeding season, which commences in September, continues until the end of January. 



Gerygone culicivora. 



WIHTE-TAILED HUSH-WARBLER. 

 Psilopus culicivorus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1840, p. 17 f. 



Gerygone culicivora, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol.. Vol. II., pi. 99 (1848); id., Handlik. Bds, Austr., 



Vol. I., p. 268 (1865). 

 Pseudogery gone culicivora, Sharpe, Oat. Bds. Brit. Mus, Vol. IV., p. 220 (1879). 



Adult m.\le — General colour above ashy-brown, slightly irashrd tvith olive, lite latter colour 

 being more distinct on the rump and upper tail-cover ts ; lesser wing coverts like the back, the median 

 and greater coverts brown, loith indistinct paler margins; quills bronni, externally edged u>iih ashy- 

 white, the basal portion of the outer webs of the secondaries ivashed with olive; two central tail- 

 feathers ashy-brown, narrovtly edged with tvhite near the centre and having a blackish-brown wash 

 towards the tips, the remainder tvhite on the basal half, blackish-brotvn on the apical portion, with a 

 spot of white at the tip of the inner web, this spot increasing in size towards the outermost feather 

 which is subterininally barred with while ; extreme bases of the central feathers dark brown ; lores 

 and a narrow line over the eye ashy-white ; a spot in front of the eye blackish-brown ; chin, fore-neck, 

 and breast ashy-white ; centre of the abdomen and under tail-coverts pure white; bill black; legs and 

 feet black; ^' iris light reddish-yellow" (Govild). Total length Jf inches, wing 23, tail IS, bill 0-32, 

 tarsus 0-75. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — Western Australia, South .\ustralia, Mctoria, New South Wales, Queens- 

 land, Central Australia. 



f |(j^HE range of the White-Tailed Bush -Warbler e.xtends over the greater portion of 

 -J- Southern .\ustralia, but it is more common in the western than the eastern parts of the 

 continent. Mr. George Masters, collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, 

 obtained specimens at Port Lincoln, South Australia, and again, three years after, at King 

 George's Sound, in December, 1868. An example was also obtained by Messrs. Cairn and 

 Grant while collecting near Bourke, on the Darling River, New South Wales, in November, 

 1888; and Mr. E. H. Lane has for two successive years, i8gg and 1900, taken its nest and 

 eggs on Wambangalang Station, near Dubbo, in the former instance also shooting one of the 



