AESrS A.VD EGGS Of AV ST KALI AX BIRDS. i j ^ 



Nest. — Noat and beautifully formed, shaped like a wine-glass w-itii the 

 base of the stock broken off, composed of fine strips of bark together with 

 moss, felted exteriorly with spiders' webs, lined inside with shreds of dark 

 vegetable matter or grass, with usually a few red flowering stalks of 

 moss on the bottom, and generally situated a few feet from tiie gi-ound on 

 a naked forked twig of a tree or bush near or overhanging a watercourse 

 in the densest scrub. Dimensions over all, 2A inches by 2 inches in depth, 

 with the addition of 2t inches for the leugtli of the tail-like appendage ; 

 egg cavity, IJ inches across by \\ inches deep. Altogether larger than 

 that of the Wliite-shafted Fantail (R. a/Ziisrapa J. In instances the 

 foundation of the nest appears somewhat heavy by reason of the twigs on 

 which it is built. 



Egrjs. — Clutch, two usually, three occasionally ; inclined to be oval or 

 rouud-oval in shape ; textui'e of shell fine ; surface glossy ; colour, light 

 yellowish-buff or yellowish-white, speckled, particularly in the form of a 

 belt round the apex, with lunber and grey. Dimensions in inches of a 

 clutch: (1) -71 X -5, (2) •7x-5; of a rounder-sized pair: (1) -67 x -53, 

 (2) -66 X -51. (P.ate 8.) 



Ohxervations. — Not only is the forehead of this Fantail rusty-red (from 

 which it derives its specific name, rufifron^). but the lower part of the back, 

 tail coverts, and the basal half of the tail wear the same reddish colour. 

 The remainder of the upper sm-face is olivc-browni, while the throat is white, 

 chest black, blending through spots into a lighter colour on the underneath 

 parts. Eyes, bill, and feet brown, harmonising with the general tone of the 

 plumage. About the same size as the Wliite-shafted Fantail. 



I have met with the exceedingly restless and showy Rufous Fantail on 

 the Bamiu-d Islands, Rockingham Bay district — probablv its most northern 

 habitat. The species is migi'atoiy, some reacliing Victoria about the end 

 of October or the beginning of November, where they love to flit up and 

 dowii the cool secluded gullies of the ranges. About the end of March they 

 move again towards their northern Cjuarters. On the 23rd March, 1888, 

 I noticed a bird rather out of its course under the roof of the Prince's 

 Bridge Railway Station, Melbourne. 



It was in a giUly on the moimtain side of the Dandenongs, one 

 Chiistmas, that I found a pretty nest saddled on a sprig of a low, 

 overhanging musk-tree. The bird was excetdingly tame, and moving its 

 ])retty hekod sideways, surveyed the intruder up and down. I had to tug 

 its tail gently once or twice to remind the little creature that it was 

 necessary, in the interests of scientific research, to quit the nest. Even- 

 tually the bird did so, reveaUng a pair of delicate eggs with incubation 

 a few days old. 



I again made the acquaintance of many Rufous Fantails in the dark 

 wndings of the Big Scrub, Riclimond River, New South Wales, where 

 I foimd two nests containing each a pair of eggs. Tliat occuiTed in 

 November, 1891. 



Mr. Lau's Queensland experience of the Rufous Fantail is that 



" it resembles the White-shafted Fantail (but with an orange tail), also 



in the constructing material of its nest and colour of eggs, but the shape 



of the nest differs bv lia\-ing hardly any point imderneath. Builds 



8 



