130 ■ ^ESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



a clear space in the centre of a dense thicket, was at least twenty feet 

 liigh. The nest at all times so closely resembles the siuTounding branches 

 that it is veiy difficult to detect unless the birds are very closely watched; 

 in some instances it looks so like an excrescence of the tree, and in others 

 is so deeply seated in the fork wherever it is placed, that it can hardly 

 be discovered when the bird is sitting upon it. ' 



Mr. W. B. Barnard, when in the Bloomfield River district, obsci-ved 

 that the Shining Flycatcher built about the banks of creeks on Umbs of 

 trees overhanging the water, and that it lays about the end of December, 

 in a nest similar to that of the Black-and-wliite Fantail, only half the size. 



According to Mr. A. J. North, Mr. J. A. Boyd found tliis bird breeding 

 early in Januaiy, 18S8, on the Herbert River, Northern Queensland. 

 The nest was built on a dead branch of a tea-tree (Melaleuca) that had 

 fallen into a water-hole. 



Tlie eggs in my collection ai'c from the Herbert River district, and 

 resemble those of the same species taken in New Guinea and New Britain. 

 The nest, which was on some vines overhanging water, was found on the 

 27th October, 1893. 



105. — MoNARCHA GOULDi, Gray. — (153) 



SPECTACLED FLYCATCHER. 



Figure. —GomM: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii., pi. 96. 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iv., p. 419. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. —Ka.msz.y: Ibis, p. 271 (186S) ; North: 

 Austn. Mus. Cat., p. 91 (i88g). 



Geoffrajjhical Distribution. — Queensland and New South Wales. 



Nest. — Neat, cup-shaped, similar to that of the Black-faced Flycatcher 

 (Monarcha melanopsis), but smaller and constructed of finer materials ; 

 composed of very fine fibrous rootlets, long strings of green moss 

 ( Uypnum), shreds of bark, and soft silky down from seed-pods, ornamented 

 outwardly and round the rim with beautiful moss and white cob-webs; 

 lined inside entirely with black haii-Uke rootlets. Usually situated about 

 six feet from the ground in the upright fork of a small tree in scrub. 

 Dimensions over all, 2 A inches by 3^ inches in depth; egg cavity, 1^ inches 

 deep (Ramsay). 



Eggs.— Chxtch, two ; roundish oval in shape ; texture of shell fine ; 

 surface glossy ; colour, pinkish-white, minutely freckled all over (thickest 

 on the larger end, where some of the markings are inclined to small 

 Ijlotches) with rich pinkish or reddish-brown and duU-piuple. Dimensions 

 in inches of a proper pair : (1) -84 x '64, (2) •84 x -63. 



Obsen'cifions. — The eggs of this interesting Flycatcher in my collection 

 with its beautifully-constructed nest, were taken in the Clarence River 

 district of New South Wales, the same district where Mr. J. MacgilUvray 

 discovered the original nest and eggs from which Dr. E. P. Ramsay took 

 liis descriptions. 



