NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 131 



106. — AfoNARCHA Goui.Di, Gray. 

 M. alhivenlria, Gould. 



WHITE-BELLIED FLYCATCHER. 



Figure.— Go\x\d : Birds of Australia, fol., siipp., pi. 13. 

 Rt/ercnce.— Gray, P.Z.S., 1S60, p. 352; Goiilci, P.Z.S., 1S66. p. 217. 

 Previous Descriptioni 0/ Eggs. — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol , supp. 



(iS6g): Ramsay: Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, 2nd ser., vol.i. 



p. 1144(1886); LeSouef: Proc. Roy. Soc. Victoria, new ser., 



vol. vii., p. 21 (1895). 



Geographical Di'^trihution. — Northern Territory and North Queens- 

 land. 



Ne.'it. — Cup-shaped, remarkable for its beauty and singular appearance, 

 composed of brownish shreds of palm fibre and skeleton leaves, cuiiously 

 decorated outwardly with wliite cocoons and green ones mixed ; lined 

 inside with black hair-like fibre in atldition to one or two long twigs, and 

 usually fastened (somewhat loo.sely) to the thin, upright prongs of a 

 branch, something after the fashion of a Reed Warbler's ( Acrocephalm 

 auxtralis), in the scrub. Dimensions over all, 2J inches by 3 inchesi in 

 depth; egg cavity, 2 inches iUToss by li inches deep. 



Eggs. — Clutch, two to three ; inclined to oval in shape ; texture of 

 shell fine ; surface glossy ; colour, warm-white, spotted and blotched 

 sometimes boldly with pinkish-red or reddish-chestnut and purple. 

 Dimensions in inches of a clutch: (1) -82 x -58, (2) -8 x -57. Similar to 

 those of P. gouldi, but slightly smaller, and markings not quite so 

 numerous. (Plate 9.) 



Ohservatidtu. — There has been some difference of opinion among 

 ornithologists whether the White-bellied Flycatcher is identical or not 

 with the Spectacled Flycatcher. I think it is separate, and that Gould's 

 original diagnostic description is con-ect. M. alhiventris, besides being a 

 little smaller than the soutlieni bird (M. gouh/i), say from New South 

 Wales, " is distinguished for the piuc whiteness of the under surface of 

 its body, its axillaries, and the under side of the wings; whereas, in the 

 south-eastern species, the chestnut colouring of the breast is continued 

 down the entu-e length of the flanks over the imder surfa<;e of the wings, 

 and on the axillaiies also in very old specimens." For other opinions 

 about these birds, students may refer to Dr. Ramsay (Proc. Linn. Soc, 

 N.S. Wales, 2nd ser., vol. i., p. 1144), and Dr. Sharpc ("Voyage of the 

 Alert," p. 14). 



Mr. D. Le Souef, who personally collected the nests of the ^^^lite-bcllicd 

 Flycatcher in Nortliem Queensland, and from whom I received my eggs, 

 states : — " These Flycatchers were seen only in the scrub, and were very 

 shy birds. All the nests we foimd were built near the top of slender 

 young trees, about four feet from the ground, and always near a water- 

 course ; their pretty cup-shaped nests were, comparatively speaking, easily 

 seen ; they were outwardly composed of fine slu-eds of bark, pieces of skeleton 



