/VESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 155 



was first scon in Central Australia, nc;vr Running Waters. Mr. Keartland 

 states they were generally found either singly or in pairs in cuealypts 

 along the creeks, but also frequently in the sciTib on the hill sides. 



128. — Geuygone albigul.\ris, Gould. — (155) 



WHITE THROATED FLY EATER. 



Figure. — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii , jil. 97. 

 Rejermce. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. iv., p 212. 

 Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs. — Ramsay: P. Z.S, p. 57b (1860); 

 Campbell ; Southern Science Record (1S82J. 



Geogra2)hical Diatrihulion. — North-west Australia, Northern Territory 

 Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. 



Nest. — Oval, with a tail-like appendage and top-side hooded entrance ; 

 constructed of fine shreds of brownish inner bark matted with wool and 

 spiders' cocoons, and ornamented with droppiiig.s of wood-eating insects 

 or resin (kino) from trees; lined inside with soft bark, &c., and fastened 

 by the upper end to a low or three-pronged twig at the extremity of a 

 swaying braiieh, perhaps twelve feet from the gi'ouud. Total length, 

 (including tail, 2i inches), 7 inches by a diameter in broadest part 2^ 

 inches ; entrance, | inch across. 



Eggs. — Clutch, three, occasionally four ; elongated in form ; texture 

 of shell fine ; surface slightly glossy ; coloui', warm-white, freckled, some- 

 times blotched with umber, chestnut, and purplish-brown. Dimensions 

 in inches of a proper clutch : (1) -74 x -18, (2) -7 x -46, (3) -69 x -5. (Plate 8). 



Observations. — Much and peculiar interest siuTounds the various 

 Gerygones, or Pseudo-Gerygones, of which eight or nine species of these 

 leaf-loving little birds inhabit Australia. 



The White-throated Gerygone, or Fly Eater, as we now call it, enjoys 

 a fair range, chiefly over the northern and east<3i'n parts of AustraUa, and 

 was recorded for Victoria almost simultaneously ljy Mr. R. Hall and 

 Mr. A. G. Campbell in 1899. It was the first bird I shot when I landed 

 in Queensland, raking it from the top of a tall tree growing by a creek 

 near Townsville. 



Tiie eggs I possess were taken by Mr. W. T. Bailey, on the 

 5th December, 1888, at Pimpana, South Queensland, from a nest in a 

 lemon tree. The birds had built iu a cinnamon tree on the 14th of 

 the previous month. It was a case of " love's labour lost," as far as 

 concerned the sweet little birds, for in the interests of oology they were 

 deprived of that clutch too. 



With reference to the Gerj'gone's nest being somewhat weighted on 

 the tail with eucalyptus kino or resin, Mr. Lau suggests it is to steady the 

 nest when the bowing branch holding it is tossed by the wind. 



I here give at length Dr. E. P. Ramsay's interesting remarks on the 

 Wliite-throated Fly Eater: — 



