120 .VESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAX BIRDS. 



field natiualists while encamped on the Glengarry River, Gippsland, 

 Christmas-tide, 1885. The nest in tliis instance was placed on an 

 overliauging branch of tea-tree (Melaleuca). 



On the 20th November, 1896, Mr. G. E. Shepherd, my son, and myself 

 were exploring a gully (locally known as Ohver's) behind Mount Eliza, 

 Victoria, where we obsen-ed many pairs of this pretty Flycatcher. We 

 took one beautiful nest containing three fresh eggs from a dead limb of a 

 eucalypt, besides noticing several being built about the forest. The biids 

 possess a plaintivelj' sweet song. 



Mr. J. T. Gillespie has kindly supphed me with a singular note 

 concerning the nesting of a pair of Leaden-coloured Flycatchers. On the 

 4th December, 1898, he observed a nest building in a saphng near the 

 Dandenong Creek, Victoria. On revisiting the spot a fortnight afterwards 

 lie found the nest deserted, and that the birds had commenced building 

 another about one hundred yards away. A wesk later three pretty eggs 

 were laid and robbed. Mr. Gillespie, on visiting the locaUty three weeks 

 afterwards, or on the 15th Januaiy, to liis surprise, foimd the original 

 uest had been completed by the Flycatchers, and contained a pair of eggs. 



96. — Myiagra concinna, Gould. — (145) 

 BLUE FLYCATCHER. 



Figure. — GonM : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii., pi. go. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol iv., p. 374. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Ramsay: Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S. Wales, 



vol vii., p. 48 (1882); Campbell: Nests and Eggs Austn. 



Birds, p. 15 (1S83). 



Geojraphical Dixtrihutioii. — North-west Australia, Northern Territory, 

 and Queensland. 



Nest. — Cup-shaped (broader at the base), neat, composed of bark, covered 

 with spiders' webs, and ornamented vdt\\ portions of Uchen, sometimes with 

 small pieces or scales of bark ; lined inside \vith fine grass, and usually 

 placed on a thin horizontal limb. Dimensions over all, 3 inches by 2 inches 

 in depth; egg cavity, Ij inches across bv \\ inches deep. 



Egy.i. — Clutcli, three ; short oval in shape ; texture of shell fine ; 

 surface glossj- ; colour, dull warmish-white, with a distinct band of confluent 

 markings of umber and pui-plish-grey round the upper quarter. Dimensions 

 in inches of a clutch: (1) -69 x -49, (2) -67 x -5. 



Observations. — This pretty little Flycatcher, with its reputed shy and 

 retiring disposition, is a frequenter of more northern locaUties, but is found 

 as far south as Central Queensland, whence birds were first collected 

 by the Messrs. Barnard, and identified by the Austrahan Museum. 



The eggs in my cabinet were received from the late Mr. George 

 Barnard, of Coomooboolaroo. 



