296 Mr. E. L. C. Layard’s Notes of a 
nest, composed of fibres and lichens, covered over with cob- 
webs, and placed in the branching head of some young sapling, 
about five feet from the ground, in the densest and gloomiest 
part of the forest. The eggs are two in number, ground-colour 
pale pink, spotted throughout with small spots of the same 
colour, only darker, which coalesce and form a broad dark 
ring near the largest diameter; axis 11!, diam. 8!". These 
eges I took myself. 
MonarcHa RUFOCASTANEA, Ramsay. 
One specimen obtained in the Solomon Islands. 
Monarcua atecro (‘Temm.). 
Nests obtained on Duke-of-York Island during August ; 
they are built on the same principle as those of M. verticals, 
but of coarser materials. The eggs are two in number, and 
those from different nests vary considerably. Some are pale 
green, sparsely spotted with dark and light purple, in the form 
of a ring, at the greatest diameter, with only a straggling spot 
here and there on the rest of the surface; others are dull 
white, with the circle of spots dull and confused, as if 
“smudged.” It is right that I should state that I never 
actually took the eggs with my own hands; those I ob- 
tained were brought in by the natives. 
SAULOPROCTA MELALEUCA (Q. et G.). 
One nest only of this common bird was found by Lieut. 
Richards, on the bare dead branch of a submerged tree that 
had fallen into the sea. It was of the usual cup-shape, and 
contained two eggs, of a warm cream-colour, tinged with 
brown, spotted, chiefly in a ring, at the largest diameter, 
with irregular indistinct purple and brown dots and blotches ; 
axis 10", diam. 74!" 
RHIPIDURA SETOSA. 
Nesting in August, but I could not find any eggs. 
PaCHYCEPHALA MELANURA. 
One specimen only, from Blanche Bay ; but it is very com- 
mon on the two islands of the Duke-of-York group that lay 
nearest to that place. One of these islands is not an acre 
in extent, with one tree in the centre of it, and the rest all 
