OF SOUTHERN AUSTRALIA. 



Only once have I had the opportunity to note the intervals 

 that elapse between the laying of each egg. They were 

 deposited on successive days. 



Nest. — Suspended, dome-shaped, and bearing a side en- 

 trance near the top, which is arched. It is made of soft bark, 

 grass, with spiders' cocoons to decorate or cement it, and 

 Kned with feathers, hair, or any available soft plant tissue. 



Eggs.— Three to a clutch ; white, with a prominent zone of 

 dull red spots near the broad end. Length, 0.75 inch ; 

 breadth, 0.5 inch. 



WHITE-SHAFTED FANTAIL, 



Rhipidura albiscapa, Gld. 



Rhi-pid'u-rd al-M-scd'pd. 

 Rhipis, a fan ; oura, tail ; albus, white ; scapo, shaft. 



Rhipidura albiscapa, Gould, " Birds of Australia," foL, vol. iii., 



pi 83. 



Geographical Distribution. — Areas 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9. 



Key to the Species. — Tail longer than wing ; the feathers of tail 

 with white shafts except the two centre ones, which are brown ; 

 under surface ochreous buff, the breast uniform ; throat white, 

 with a black or grey patch on lower portion. 



In the moist parts of Southern Australia this is the most 

 common Fly-catcher. 



Almost every creek along whose sides grow tea-tree and other 

 luxuriant vegetation is tenanted by this sprightly little bird, 

 which seldom ventures far from the water. In this latter respect 

 it resembles B. ruffrons, but differs in that the latter prefers 

 the mountainous soUtudes to the bustle of the creek side in 

 the more open country. 



As one rests among the bushes amid which the White- 



