INSESSORES. 



245 



short duration ; it never poises itself in the air, like the Seisura 

 volitans, and never mounts higher than the tops of the trees. 



It commences breeding in September, and generally rears 

 two or three broods. Its beautiful deep, cup-shaped and 

 compact nest is very often built on a branch overhanging water, 

 or on the dead limb of a tree overshadowed by a living 

 branch above it, but the usual and favourite site is the upper 

 side of a fallen branch without the slightest shelter from the 

 sun and rain, at about three or four feet from the ground ; 

 the nest itself is constructed of dried grasses, strips of bark, 

 small clumps of grass, roots, &c., all bound and firmly matted 

 together and covered over with cobwebs, the latter material 

 being at times so similar in appearance to the barkof the branch, 

 that the entire nest looks like an excrescence of the wood, 

 when it is almost impossible to detect it ; it is lined with 

 a finer description of grass, small wiry fibrous roots, or 

 feathers. The eggs are generally three in number, of a dull 

 greenish white, banded round the centre or towards the larger 

 end with blotches and spots of blackish and chestnut-brown, 

 which in some instances are very minute ; the medium length 

 of the egg is nine lines and a half, by seven lines in breadth. 

 On an intruder approaching the nest, the birds fly about and 

 hover over his head, and will even sit on the same branch on 

 which the nest is placed while the eggs are being taken ; 

 uttering all the time a peculiar cry which may be compared to 

 the sound of a child's rattle, or the noise produced by the 

 small cog-wheels of a steam-mill. 



The sexes are alike in plumage, and may be thus de- 

 scribed : — 



Head, neck, throat, sides of the chest, upper surface, and 

 tail glossy greenish black ; over each eye a narrow line of 

 white ; wings brown ; wing-coverts with a small triangular 

 spot of white at the tip j under surface pale buffy white ; 

 irides, bill, and feet black. 



