206 JIUSCICAPID.?!. 



quantity of the brown siiky covering of freshly budded fern fronds, the inside also being lined 

 with the latter material and a large quantity of the feathers of the Yellow-bellied Parrakeet. 

 This nest was taken on the 17th December, 1899, and contained four fresh eggs. A third nest 

 taken from a clump of rushes surrounded by water, is a long oval in shape with a narrow 

 entrance near the top, slightly protected by a hood; it is rather loosely constructed of dried 

 grasses, skeletons of leaves, and thin wiry rootlets, the inside being lined with very fine grasses 

 and a layer of white cow-hair. It measures e.xternally seven inches and a half in_ height by 

 four inches in breadth; width of entrance one inch and a quarter, .\nother similarly shaped 

 nest is outwardly constructed of very long strips of thin bark fibre, and dead weeds, and lined 

 inside with a very thick layer of the feathers of the Yellow-bellied Parrakeet, and which 

 evidently forms the chief lining to nests of all species in this locality where feathers are used. 



The eggs are usually three or four in number for a sittins, oval or elongate-oval in form, 

 the shell being close-grained, smooth, and lustreless. In ground colour they vary from pure 

 white to fleshy and faint reddish-white, which is freckled, spotted, or blotched with different 

 shades of red, the markings predominating as usual on the thicker end, wiiere in some specimens 

 they are confluent and form a more or less well defined cap or zone. .Xmong a number of sets 

 now before me, the prevailing hue of the markings is dull red and to a less e.xtent purplish-red. 

 Occasionally specimens are found distinctly spotted with dark red or reddish-black, and closely 

 resembling the eggs of Ephthianura alhifrons, for which tliey miglit easily be mistaken. Of the 

 latter type was a set of four, taken by Mr. E. D. Atkinson on the 15th October, 1892, from a 

 nest built in a prickly acacia in his paddock at Table Cape, on the north-west coast of 

 Tasmania. They measure: — Length (.A) 0-72 x 0-52 inches; (B) 073 x 0-52 inches; (C) 0-75 x 

 0-54 inches; (D) 075 x 0-53 inches. A set of three, taken by Mr. R. N. Atkinson at Waratah, 

 Mount Bischoff, on the 6th October, 1900, measures: — (A) 0-65 x 0-5 inches; (13)07x0-51 

 inches; (C) 0-67 x 0-52 inches. Another set taken in the same locality on the 22nd November, 

 1900, measures: — (A) 07 x 0-54 inches; (B) 075 x 0-55 inches; (C) 073 x 0-56 inches. 



Young males resemble the female, but the lores and feathers surrounding the eye are only 

 washed with rufous, and the tail is dull blue. Semi-adult or young males in change of plumage 

 have the distinguishing brown feathers of youth intermingled with the rich blue and black 

 feathers of the adult, but the latter are less brilliant in colour. Almost the last trace of 

 immaturity, with the exception perhaps of a brown feather here and there, is exhibited in the 

 blackish shade to the feathers on the centre of the throat. 



October and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season of this 

 species, but while resident at Table Cape, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Mr. E. D. 

 Atkinson sent me a note that he had found a nest in a tea-tree, containing three fresh eggs, as 

 late as the 22nd January, 1892. 



Malurus superbus. 



SUPERB WARBLER. 

 Sylvia cyanea (nee Motacilla cyanea, Ellis), Lath., Ind. Orn , p. ■54-5 (1790), {part). 

 MotaciUa superba, Shaw, in White's Journ. Voy. N.S.W., p. 2.')G, and pi. opp. p. 256, upper fig., (1790). 



Malurus cyaneus, GoiM, Bds. Austr., fol, Vol. III., pi. 18(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 

 Vol. I., p. 317 (1865). 



Malurus superbus, North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. XXVI., p. 032 (1902). 



Adult male — Forehead, crotvn of the head, feathers below the eye, ear-coverts, and mantle pale 

 metallic-blue ; lores, feathers above the eye, sides of crown, hind-neck, back, rump, and dipper tail- 

 coverts velvety-black ; upper wingcoverts and quills brown; tail feathers dark blue; clieeks, throat. 



