INSESSORES. 213 



and continues during the three following months. The nest is 

 cup-shaped, and is rather a frail structure, being often so slight 

 that the eggs may be descried through the interstices of the 

 fine twigs and fibrous roots of which it is composed. In 

 New South Wales I found the nest upon the small horizontal 

 branches of large trees, but at Swan River it is more frequently 

 constructed in shrubs, particularly the Melaleuca : the eggs 

 are generally three in number, of an olive tint, with a zone 

 of indistinct spots and blotches at the larger end ; they are 

 eleven lines long by eight lines broad. 



The sexes diff'er very considerably both in the arrange- 

 ment of their markings and in the general colouring of their 

 plumage, and it is not until the second year that the young 

 males assume the band on the chest and the pure white 

 throat of the adult. 



Sp. 117. PACHYCEPHALA PALCATA, Gould. 



LuNATED Thickhead. 

 Pachycephala falcata, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part x. p. 134!. 



Pachycephala falcata, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. ii. pi. 68. 



We find in this species of Pachycephala, which inhabits the 

 northern parts of Australia, a beautiful representative of the 

 P. pectoralis of the southern parts of the continent ; from 

 which it diff'ers in its much smaller size, and in the black 

 crescent which bounds the white throat of the male not ex- 

 tending upwards to the ear-coverts, which with the lores are 

 grey. All the specimens I possess were killed on the Cobourg 

 Peninsula, near the settlement at Port Essington, where, as 

 well as on the adjacent islands, it is a stationary species and 

 very abundant. It breeds in September and the two following 

 months, and lays two eggs. Its habits and manners are pre- 

 cisely similar to those of the other members of the family. 



The adult male has the crown of the head, lores, ear-coverts, 

 back, and upper tail-covcrts grey ; wings dark brown, all the 



