QUEENSLAND and NORTHERN TERRITORY 51 



along the houseless cuckoo and drops in a bronze 

 coloured egg, with the usual tragedy of the young 

 to follow. The Southern and Western forms of 

 "cranky fan" have white shafts to their tail 

 feathers; the western bird of the karri and jarrah 

 forests differing from the eastern in the paler 

 breast band. 



In map 19, "f" we find the Tasmanian race of 

 darker plumage obeying the law of darker 

 plumage on islands of high latitude. 



The Central Australian bird has its outer tail 

 feathers pure white, and it is found in the mulga 

 scrub about the creeks of the ranges, e.g. Mac- 

 donnell Range. It has the typical eccentric action 

 of flight, with a fan-like tail as it shoots out into 

 mid-air and twists about, promptly returning with 

 an insect captured on the wing. 



The Northern Fantail is pheasant like in general 

 appearance.. The country it is partial to is 

 mangrove fringes, teeming with mosquitoes and 

 smaller insects. In the west, g- is a paler race of 



THE RESTLESS FLYCATCHER AND ITS 



RACES 



(Plate 1, Fig. 20) 



A reference to map 20 will show the "scissors 

 grinder" to be distributed all round Australia, but 

 not in Tasmania. The birds of Tasmania are so 



3 



