Birds of the Fiji Islands. 149 



than three — a family party, father, mother, and chick ; for, 

 strange to say, the female never lays more than one egg. We 

 found so many nests with solitary nestlings, and saw so many 

 family parties, that there can be no doubt of the fact, which, 

 so far as I can call to mind, is unique among the Insessores. 

 We were a month or three weeks too late for their eggs, and 

 too early for the second hatch, which I suspect they have, as 

 the forest was full of young birds. The nests had chiefly 

 fully fledged young ones ; and only one had a single fresh egg ; 

 ofiF this last I shot the female. This nest was built at the 

 forked extremity of a thin horizontal twig, about four feet from 

 the ground (none that we saw were out of reach of our hands) , 

 composed of fibres and the macerated strands of a species of 

 flag, and lined with feathers, among which I detected the 

 brilliant yellow breast-plumes of Pachycephala torquata (to 

 which they seemed partial) and those of Carpophaga latrans. 

 The structure, though light, is tolerably thick ; diam. 3" 9'" 

 outside, 1" 9'" inside ; depth 2" 9'". The eggs have a pale pink 

 ground, generally coloured with dark pink spots of various 

 sizes, the colour of which seems to have run at the edges. 

 Another egg was almost white, with minute pink freckles; 

 but it was addled, and, I think, a season old, and consequently 

 bleached. Axis (of the good egg) 1", diam. 9'". 



In habits Lamprolia victoria shows considerable affinity to 

 Thamnobia in its jerky motions, mode of flight, clambering 

 up the thick (or thin) lianas, drooping its wings and elevating 

 its tail. My son saw one clinging upright to a tree and dig- 

 ging into an ants' nest ; one had its mouth full of white ants, 

 destined probably for its young. It has a variety of cries, 

 but no song (that we heard) ; it chattered defiance at us if 

 near its nest, and was not at all shy. At other times it ut- 

 tered a stridulous cry. The mouth of the young bird is bright 

 yellow inside. When flying through the forest its course is 

 pretty straight and swift, not jerky or undulating; it rarely, 

 if ever, ascends trees of any altitude, always keeping to the 

 undergrowth. 



Rhipidura albicollis, Layard. 



This pretty little " Fan-tail " is rather abundant in Taviuni. 



