200 MDSCICAPID.E. 



under surface white, tinged tviih fulvous-brown on the breast and flanks : under tail-coverts white; 

 bill deep olive black ; legs and feet black; "iris rerf" (Broadbent). Total length SS inches, iving 

 £•1, tail 1-7, bill 0'4, tarsus 0-7. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — Northern Territory of South Australia, North-eastern Queensland. 

 AT^HIS species was discovered by Gilbert on Greenhill Island, near Port Essington. 

 J- Apparently it is rare in that portion of the continent, for it was not represented in 

 either of the large collections made by Mr. Alex. Morton and the late Mr. E. Spalding at Port 

 Essington and Port Darwin. Mr. Charles French, Junr., has, however, sent me a mutilated 

 skin of a bird that was obtained, together with its nest and egg, near the Daly River, in the 

 Northern Territory of South Australia, in January, 1903. Dr. Sharpe has recorded it from 

 Thursday Island, and I have received specimens for examination from the Trustees of the 

 South Australian Museum, .\delaide, that were procured at Cape York. Although the wing- 

 measurements of specimens obtained in these widely separated localities are alike, the bill of 

 the example from the Northern Territory of South .Australia is slightly larger than those of 

 specimens procured at Cape York, while the bills of the latter are larger than those of examples 

 obtained farther south at Cardwell and the Herbert River. There is also a slight variation in 

 the markmg at the tip of the inner web of the tail-feathers, some being only narrowly edged 

 with white, others having a more or less distinct white spot. Gould, in his description, makes 

 no mention of the small white spot at the nostril, or that the eyelid above and below is white. 

 The lower figure of this species, also in his folio edition of the " Birds of Australia," is repre- 

 sented as having whitish tips to all the tail-feathers. Mr. George Masters, in describing Gerygone 

 simplex,] from the Gulf of Carpentaria, compares it with the present species, G. magnirostris. 

 I find, however, on examining the type at the Macleay Museum, and several other specimens 

 procured at the same time by Mr. Broadbent, that it corresponds almost precisely with Dr. 

 Sharpe's description of G. lavigaster.\ From Gould's original description and figure of the 

 latter species, the bird described by Mr. Masters differs chiefly in not having the entire tips of 

 all but the two central tail-feathers white, and in the absence of the pronounced white orbital 

 ring, as represented in Gould's lower figure. Notwithstanding these discrepancies, I agree 

 with Dr. Sharpe in regarding Gerygone simplex as the same as G. lavigaster, Gould. 



Mr. Frank Hislop informs me that Gerygone magnirostris is common in the Cooktown and 

 Bloomfield River Districts, where it is known as the '• Flood-bird," from its usual habit of 

 building on a creeper or vine overhanging water, and its nest resembling a mass of debris 

 left by the water after the creeks or rivers have been unusually high or flooded, although 

 occasionally their nests are found in the forest, far away from water. 



There are specimens in the .\ustralian Museum collection, obtained by Mr. Kendal 

 Broadbent, near Cardwell, and I received a female, together with its nest and eggs, from Mr. 

 J. A. Boyd while resident at the Herbert River, who informed me that it is a common species 

 in that neighbourhood. 



With but few exceptions, all the nests of this species found by Mr. Boyd were built in 

 low trees overhanging a river or the bed of a creek. Early on the morning of the 25th of 

 November, 1892, Mr. Boyd was successful in capturing a female sitting on her two eggs, 

 and also on one of a Bronze Cuckoo. The nest was built in a Shaddock-tree in the garden, 

 this being the first occasion on which he had ever found the nest not overhanging a bank or 

 stream. Subsequently Mr. Boyd obtained a nest with two fresh eggs on the gth of December, 

 and another on the 17th with three fresh eggs in it. 



* Rep. Voy. H M.S. "Alert," p. 13 (1883). 



t Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. i., p. 52 (1876). 



; Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. iv., p. 224 (1879). 



