38 PACHYCEPHALIS.B. 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes onl}* two in number for a sitting, elongate oval in 

 form, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustreless. They are white, over which is 

 sprinkled dots, freckles, and irregular shaped spots of pale brown, brownish and slaty-black and 

 inky-grey, the markings predominating at the larger end, where they frequently assume the 

 form of a well defined zone, some specimens also having short irregular streaks or hair-lines. 

 In others, the markings are almost invisible, consisting of fine pepper and salt dustings of slaty 

 and brownish-black, while specimens may be found with bold bran-like markings and blotches 

 of the same colours intermingled with underlying spots of slaty-grey, the latter somewhat 

 resembling a variety of the eggs of the introduced House Sparrow (Passer domcsticus ). At set of 

 three taken at Canterbury, on the 3rd October, i8g6, measures : — Length (A) 0-98 x o-68 inches; 

 (B) o'g4 X 0-67 inches; (C) o-g8 x 0-67 inches. Another set of three taken in the same locality 

 on the 2ist September, 1897, measures: — Length (A) 0-92 x 0-65 inches; (6)0-91 x o-66 

 inches; (C) 0-92 x o'67 inches. 



Two broods are probably reared during the breeding season, which commences m August, 

 and lasts until the end of December or middle of January. At Harcourt near Canterbury, New 

 South Wales, I saw two young ones on the 31st December, 1893, being fed by their parents, 

 also two more at Eastwood on the following day. The notes of the young ones resemble 

 the alarm notes of the Yellow-breasted Robin (Eopsaltria austridis). 



Falcunculus leucogaster. 



WUITK- BELLI ED SHRIKE-TIT. 

 Falcunculus leucogaster, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 144; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. II., pi. 80 

 (1848); id. Hand-bk. Bds. Austr., Vol. L, p. 228(1865); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 

 Vlir., p. 174, (188.3); Sharpe, Hand-1. Bds, Vol. IV., p. 302 (1903). 



Adult m.a.le — General colour above yelloivish-olive, sliglitly brigliter on the lower back, rump and 

 upper tail-coverts : itpper iviug-co verts blackis/i brown externally margined ivitJt yelloivisli-olive, passing 

 into yellowisli-ivli ite on the apical portion of the greater series; quills blackish-broivn, margined externally 

 with yellowish-olive, a narroiv edge on llie apicat portion of the outermost primaries and the tips of 

 the innermost secondaries almost pure ivhile; central tail feathers yelloivisli -olive, the remainder 

 blaekish-broivn externally margined tvith yellotvlsh-olire and narroivhj tipped iL-ith ivhite, except the 

 outermost feather on either side which is light brownish-grey with the outer iveb and a broad tip white; 

 feathers above the eye, crown of the head and centre of the nape luhite, followed by a broad black band 

 commencing belotv and behind the eye and extendiny on to the sides of the neck, and bordered below 

 by a broad wliite stripe; chin, throat and fore neck black; chest bright yellow, lower portion of the 

 breast and the abdomen wliite; bill black; "legs and feet greenish -bbie : iris loood brown." — (Gould). 

 Total length 6'S inches, wing S'o, tail 33, bill 6, tarsus OS. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male but having t/ie chin, tliroat, and fore neck dark 

 grey was/ied ivitli olive-green, instead of black. 



Distribution — Western .\ustralia. 

 / |(^HE present species is an inhabitant of the south-western portions of the continent, 

 -L representing there Falcunculus frontatus of Eastern Australia, and from which it may be 

 distinguished by its white lower breast and abdomen, and the olive-yellow margins to the quills 

 and tail-feathers. There are specimens in the Australian Museum collection obtained by Mr. 

 George Masters, at King George's Sound, and Mongup, Salt River, Western Australia in i86g. 

 Mr. Master's observations on this species bear out what Gould has already remarked of it in 

 his "Handbook to the Birds of .\ustralia " that "the habits in fact of the White-bellied and 

 Frontal Shrike-Tit are so closely similar, that a further description is unnecessary. Gilbert 



