TNSESSORES. 205 



forth his song all the while. The eggs, which are generally 

 two, but sometimes three in number, differ very considerably 

 in colour, some being of a light green blotched all over with 

 wood-brown, while others have a lighter ground so largely 

 blotched with chestnut-brown as nearly to cover the entire 

 surface of the shell, and I have seen some of an almost uniform 

 greyish green ; their medium length is nine and a half lines, 

 and breadth seven and a half lines. 



In his Notes from Western Australia, Gilbert says, " This 

 bird is a migratory summer visitant to this part of the 

 country, where it arrives about the beginning of September, 

 after which it is to be met with in considerable numbers 

 among the mountains of the interior, but is very rarely seen 

 in the lowland districts. 



" Its powers of flight are considerable, and when excited 

 during the breeding-season the males become very pugnacious, 

 and not only attack each other in the most desperate manner, 

 but also assault much larger birds that may approach the 

 nest. Its usual flight is even, steady, and graceful, and while 

 flying from tree to tree it gives utterance to its sweet and 

 agreeable song, which at times is so like the full, swelling, 

 shaking note of the Canary, that it might easily be mistaken 

 for the song of that bird. It is a remarkably shy species, espe- 

 cially the females, which are so seldom seen that I was at first 

 inclined to think they were much less numerous than the 

 other sex, but this I afterwards found was not the case. Their 

 favourite haunts are thickly-wooded places and the most se- 

 cluded spots. The nest is so diminutive that it is very diffi- 

 cult to detect it, and so shallow in form that it is quite 

 surprising the eggs do not roll out when the branch is 

 shaken by the wind. The nests I discovered were placed 

 on a horizontal dead branch of a Eucalyptus; they were 

 formed of grasses and contained two eggs. It breeds in 

 the latter part of September and the beginning of October." 

 Gilbert subsequently met with the bird at Port Essington, 



