518 Messrs. E. L. & E. L. C. Layard on the 



grey-green, marked all over with small irregular brown 

 freckles and blotches ; axis 8^"^ diam. G^'". 



Our fair friend procured this nest in September ; but we 

 took a fully developed but unshelled egg from the ovary 

 of a female on the 2nd of February. They probably have two 

 broods a year. 



The plumage of this little bird is remarkably lax and fluffy. 

 Total length 5" 8'", wing 3", tail 2" 6'", tarse 11'". Iris dark 

 brown ; upper mandible of bill darkish horn, lower orange on 

 the edge, horn-coloured at tip, pale horn in the centre at 

 the base ; legs and feet dark cinnamon-brown, with deep buff 

 soles to feet. 



[I quite agree with Mr. Layard that this bird is wrongly 

 assigned to the genus. It is really a Muscicapine form with 

 a large first primary. — H. B. T.] 



37. Myiolestes pachycephaloides (D. G. Elliot). 



If our American friend had bestowed the soubriquet of 

 myiolestoides on this plain-coloured brown bird, he would, 

 to our minds, have conveyed a much better idea of its affini- 

 ties, besides saving three letters. 



In all respects, save in the singular white bill, it resembles 

 the Myiolestes we used to procure in Fiji. Its coloration is 

 identical, equally with its habits. It frequents the most 

 dense and gloomy forest, whence its melancholy long-drawn 

 whistle sounds in mournful cadence. This call frequently 

 leads to their betrayal, when they would otherwise escape 

 notice in the dim twilight of the recesses in which they 

 delight. We have, by standing still and repeating their note, 

 often succeeded in drawing them within gun-shot after we 

 had sought in vain to discover them by other means. 



We first procured the species on the Dombea road, about 

 twelve miles from Noumea, where we watched it actively 

 engaged in hunting its prey (insects), springing up for them on 

 the undersides of leaves and branches, elevating and expand- 

 ing its tail, the light tips of which were at times very con- 

 spicuous ; its motions were, in fact, singularly like those of 

 Rhipidura, for which, at some distance, we at first mistook 

 it ; a nearer approach, however, soon revealed its white bill. 



