THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 11 



Hon. Walter Rothschild* C. orientalis is not separable from 

 C. nuchalis, and does not merit even sub-specific rank. In that 

 writer's opinion, therefore, the eggs described and figured by me 

 in the Victorian Naturalist^ from Mr. C. French, jun.'s, collection 

 are really attributable to G. nuchalis. Although Mr. Rothschild 

 has seen in the British Museum "examples of both forms, together 

 with a specimen almost intermediate, all from one and the same 

 locality,'' I cannot agree- with that writer's conclusions. In the 

 large series of these birds now before me the distinguishing 

 characters of G. orientalis, pointed out by Gould, are constant in 

 adult birds, and although undoubtedly both species are closely 

 allied I cannot but regard C. orientalis as distinct, and the repre- 

 sentative of C. nuchalis in Eastern Australia. 



Rhipidura albicauda. North (White-tailed Flycatcher). 



Although the present species was one of the novelties secured 

 by the members of the Horn Exploring Expedition in Central 

 Australia in 1894, by some inadvertence its nest and egg, which 

 was secured in the same year, has been apparently overlooked 

 and hitherto undescribed. The small cobweb-coated and deli- 

 cately-formed open nest of the White-tailed Flycatcher doubtless 

 closely resembles that of its well-known near ally, B. albiscapa, for 

 Mr. C. E. Cowle, who found it at Illamurta in December, 1894, 

 in describing it to Mr. Keartland, states it is of a " pipe-like 

 shape," evidently referring to the tail-like appendage below the 

 nest and the thin Mulga branch on which it was placed. The 

 single egg, however, which it contained varies somewhat from 

 typical eggs of the White-shafted Flycatcher. It is oval in form, 

 and of a faint buffy-white ground colour, which is thickly covered 

 with minute and indistinct freckles of very pale purplish-buff, the 

 markings being more thickly disposed on the larger end, and 

 forming an obscure cap. Length, 0.65 x 0.5 inch. 



PsoPHODES NiGROGULARis, Gould (Western Whip-bird). 



Two eggs of this species, taken by Mr. J. Harris from small 

 saucer-shaped nest built of twigs and placed in low, scrubby 

 undergrowth, near Bunbury, Western Australia, in December, 

 1898, cannot be distinguished from some eggs of the eastern 

 representative, P. crepitans. One specimen is oval in form, 

 and of a pale bluish-white ground colour, with dots, spots, and 

 small irregular-shaped blotches and dashes scattered over the 

 shell, but more thickly disposed on the larger end, where some 

 of the markings are confluent, and are intermingled with a 

 few underlying streaks and spots of faint bluish-grey. Length, 

 1.06 X 0.78 inch. The other egg is an elongate oval in form, 

 exceeding in length average specimans of P. crepitans, and is of 



* Nov. ZooL, vol. v., p. 86 (1S98). 

 + Fict. Nat., vol, xii., p. 104 (1895). 



