no A'ESTS AXD EGGS OF AVSTKALIA.V BIRDS. 



a clear purling stream that had carved for itself a narrow track through 

 a rich alluvial flat, where tall timber giew. The uest was low down, well 

 under the shelter of one of the banks. In the Big Scrub of New South 

 Wales I took another beautiful nest for two purposes, firstly, to eni-ich 

 my collection from that locality, and secondly because it stood right in 

 the way between my camera lens and a picturesque waterfall I intended 

 to photograph. 



Mr. Lau writes, of the White-shafted Fantail : — '' This happy Httle 

 bird may be seen all over the Downs of Queensland, in the open forest as 

 well as in the scrub ; but to look for its nest you have to resort to the 

 latter place. In the month of October you may find a receptacle — a most 

 lovely production — the property of this Flycatcher, sometimes within 

 reach, although oft-times ten to twenty feet high in a tree. This uest is 

 exactly the shape of a wine-glass without the foot, manufactured out of 

 fine chy grass connected or enclosed by spiders' web, and lined 

 throughout with fibres or fine rootlets. A uest containing two roundish 

 eggs was taken at Cimningham's Gap, m the Toowoomba Range, 1876. 

 The first nest I foimd, however, was in 1856, at Ullandulla, New South 

 Wales." 



With regard to U. flahellifera, of New Zealand, a closely-allied form to 

 the E. alhiscapa, the following periods of time noted by Mr. Potts respect- 

 ing its nidification may apply to the Australian bird, and therefore not 

 be out of place: — On the 23rd October he found a nest vnth only the 

 foundation laid. The pair of birds building had a brood of three young 

 ones to feed, hatched from another nest not far away. 27th. — Nest 

 apparently finished and contained one egg. 29th. — Three eggs. 14th 

 Novembei-. — Four young hatched. 27th. — Young birds qviittied their 

 home. 



Sometimes the White-shafted Fantail will pull down a partly-con- 

 stiiicted nest and build it elsewhere for no other reason apparently than 

 its having been seen or watched by some person. 



This little bird seems to be a favourite foster-parent of the Square- 

 tailed Cuckoo (C. rariolosiis). 



The White-shafted Fantail is a late breeder. I have never taken eggs 

 earlier than the 13th October, and have taken them as late as Christmas 

 time. Between these periods probably two or more broods are reared. 



87- — Rhipidura preissi, Cabanis. — (135) 

 WESTERN FANTAIL. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit Mus , vol. iv., p. 310 



Previous Description of Eggs. — North: Proc, Linn, Soc-, NS Wales, 

 vol. iii.. 2nd ser., p. 414 (1888). 



GeographicaJ Distribution. — West and North-west Australia. 



Nest. — Small and neat, resembling that of the eastern species 

 (R. albiscapaj, but somewhat smaller, composed of fine shreds of bark 



