.VESTS A.\'D EGGS 01- AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 125 



Xest. — Resembles that of the Black-and-white Fantail (Hhipidura 

 tricolor), but usually thinner walled and sUghtly larger in size ; cup-sliaped, 

 composed of fine glass or fine shreds of bark matted together, and out- 

 waadlv covered with spiders' webs, and occasionally ornamented with 

 wliitish cocoons; sometimes a feather or two, such as Emu's ( Dromcfua), 

 are interwoven ; lined inside with very fine fibrous rootlets and a few 

 feathers, and placed on the dead portion of a low hoiizontal limb, near 

 the extremitv, often above water. Dimensions over all, 3 inches by 1| 

 inches in depth; egg cavity, I4 inches across by 1§ inches deep. 



Egyn. — Clutch, three; short oval in shape, or largely rounded at 

 one end ; textiu-e of shell fine ; surface glossy ; colom-, dull or warm-white, 

 with a distinct belt, roiuid the upper quarter, of confluent markings of 

 umber and dull-grey. Dimensions in inches of a pair (out of a clutch 

 of three): (1) -83 x -61, (2) -82 x -6. (Plate 9.) 



Ohservations. — The well-named Restless Flycatcher ranges throughout 

 Australia, but is by no means so numei-ous as the " Wagtail, or Black- 

 and-white Fantail. 



The Restless Flycatcher is slightly larger than the Black-and-wliite 

 Fantail. which it resembles, but has the whole of the under surface white, 

 with the bill greenish-blue, passing into black towards the tip ; legs and 

 feet dark-brown. 



On account of the singular giindiiig noise, hke scissors being shai-pened 

 against a stone, which the bird sometimes emits when poised on trembUng 

 wings a few feet above the gi-ound, it has received the vernacular name 

 of •■ The Grinder." 



The first nest I procured of the Restless Flycatcher was taken near 

 the junction of the Murray and Darling rivers, 1877. The nest had, 

 artisticallv interwoven, a few Emu feathers. A second nest that came 

 under my notice was in an open forest, near Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, 

 9th November, 1879. It contained fully-fledged yoimg. A third 

 nest, in this instance building, I found diuing one December when lagoon- 

 wading near the Murray. Tlie water surroiuiding the tree, which was a 

 small red-giun (eucalypt), was about three feet deep. The tree I marked 

 or " blazed," and through the agency of a thoughtful friend, the clutch 

 of three eggs, Ln due course, followed me home. 



Gould obsei-ved several nests of the Restless Flycatcher in New South 

 Wales, while Gilbert, in Western Australia, found some, remarkably neat 

 and pretty, and formed of cob-webs, dried soft grasses, narrow strips of 

 gum-tree (Eucalyptus) bark, and the soft paper-like bark of the tea-tree 

 (Melaleuca), &c. They were usually lined with feathers or a fine wiiy 

 grass, and in some instances with horse-hair. Gilbert also found the bird 

 vei"y reluctant to leave the nest, almost suffering itself to be handled 

 rather thaa desert its eggs. 



Mr. Lau writes: — " Tlie nest of the Grinder is usually high up in a 

 tree on a bough. It was a long time before I was able to secure the eggs. 

 Growing impatient to see how they looked, and, observing a nest high 

 up in a eucalypt, I shot with my rifle through the nest, the eggs falling 

 into the water. On picking up the broken shells I found they gi-eatly 



