172 MELIPHAGID.E. 



hypoleucus), who had chosen a 'black-butt' near the house as a nesting site, had their nest and 

 its contents on two occasions destroyed by a pair of Helmeted Friar-birds, who were breeding 

 in the same tree. The nest is a large cup-shaped structure outwardly formed of strips of bark 

 and bark fibre, and lined inside with very fine plant stems. It is suspended by the rim to a thin 

 forked twig at the extremity of a horizontal branch, and almost invariably it is built in the 

 same tree in which there is a nest of the Drongo-shrike or the Yellow-breasted Fig-bird. 

 The trees most frequently selected as nesting sites are the 'black-butt' and Moreton Bay Ash. 

 The breeding season lasts from October to the end of February. Eggs three to five, but generally 

 four for a sitting." 



The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, and are extremely variable in shape, 

 size, colour, and disposition of markings. They are oval in form, the shell being close grained, 

 smooth, and lustreless. Typically they are of a faint reddish-white ground colour which is 

 thickly freckled, spotted, and boldly blotched with different shades of red and light purplish-red, 

 intermingled with similar underlying marking of lilac-grey, the markings usually predominating 

 and being larger towards the thicker end. Others have a few light brown spots intermingled 

 with the red or purplish-red blotches, while some have large confluent patches of light red 

 distributed over the shell which is again blotched with purplish-red and dull lilac-grey, many of 

 the different coloured markings overlying one another. A set of four taken by Mr. Bertie 

 Hislop in the Bloomfield District, on the loth December, 1894, measures: — Length (A) 1-26 x 

 Q-gi inches; (B) 1-23 x 0-87 indies; (C) i-i8 x o-88 inches; (D) i-23 x o-88 inches. A set 

 of three taken in the same district, on the i8th December, measures: — Length (A) i-i8 x 0-93 

 inches; (B) 1-17 x 0-93 inches; (C) it8 x 0-95 inches. 



Young birds may be distinguished by having the sides of the neck entirely covered with 

 silvery-brown or pale brown feathers. 



Tropidorhynchus argenticeps. 



SILVERY-CROWNED FRIAR- BIRD. 

 Tropidorhynclius aryenticeps, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1839, p. 144; id., Bd-s. Austr., foL, Vol. 



IV., pi. .'iO (IS-IS); id., Handbk. Bds. Aust, Vol. I., p. ,548 (18G.5). 

 Philemon aryenticeps, Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. i'li (1884). 



Adult male — Similar tu Tkopidokhynchu.s buceroide.s, Swainson, but smaller, and havini/ t/ie 

 elevated ridge at the base nf the culmen narroiver and more rounded in form, the lanceolate feathers 

 on the crown of the head, sides of the neck, chin, throat, and fore neck silvery-white; the bare 

 space on the sides of the head is triangular inform, and the under parts are slightly paler titan in T. 

 BUCEROIDES. Total length 11 inches, wing .7 -.7, tail .^v7, bill from hinder porlio7i of elevated ridge on 

 culmen I'-iti, tartins 1 ','.'. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, North 

 Queensland. 



/T^HL present species was described by Gould from specimens collected by the late Mr. 

 J- Bynoe on the North-western coast of Australia. Specimens also received later 



by Gould were procured in the inland portions of North-western Australia by the late Sir 

 George Grey. Gould in all his descriptions states: — "Throat and all the under surface white." 

 The latter in all the specimens I have examined is pale brown. Although widely distributed 

 over the northern portion of the continent, the Northern Territory of South Austraha is 

 apparently the stronghold of this species. Specimens were obtained at Port Essington, \'am 



