AVICULTURAL NOTES.



Sir,—I saw in the correspondence pages of a recent number of the

Avicultural Magazine, your request that members should record from time

to time any notable additions to their collections.


In response, I write to say that during the past week I have acquired,

besides the Wood-Swallows of which I have already written, one Fantail

Flycatcher, or Wagtail Fantail, or Black and White Fantail ( Sauloprocto

motacilloides ), and one Yellow-breasted Australian Robin ( Eopsaltria

Australis ).


With regard to the first-named bird, either of the popular names

quoted would appear to be appropriate. It has a fan-shaped tail, uses it

like a Wagtail, is certainly a fly-catcher, and is entirely black and white in

plumage. All the upper portion of the body, and the wings and tail, are

jet black, and the under half of the bird is pure white. A pair of white

eyebrows furnish the only white in the upper portion of the bird’s plumage,

and the only black in the under section of the bird is that of the legs and

feet. The primary and secondary wing-feathers when the wing is extended

are really a pale brown, but the wing when closed appears of the same jet

black as the rest of the upper half of the plumage. In size it approaches

the Shtma or the Dhyal Bird, but is somewhat more slender in body. In

quite a small cage it can keep on the wing when it chooses without

touching the perches. I think the bird has never before been imported.

The gentleman who brought it tried one on his last homeward voyage, but

it died on the journey. My present specimen is in perfect health and

plumage, and is an example of what can be done with intelligent attention

on a journey of some twelve thousand miles through every gradation of

temperature and weather.


The Yellow-breasted Robin is just a little larger than our Redbreast.

Like the Sauloprocto it has many" of the characteristics of the flv-catchers,

and the colouring is similarly- divided between the upper and lower portions

of the bird. The entire upper half of the head and body^, together with the

wings and tail are of a bluish grey, and the under portion of the body is of

the same colour as that of our Yellow Wagtail. Both birds are sufficiently

tame to accept a mealworm from the fingers, but I have of course not had

them sufficiently long to say anything of them as cage birds. Before this

letter can be in print the birds, together with the Wood-Swallows and many

of my best foreign birds, will be in the possession of Mr. Glasscoe who has

helped me in my determination to ‘‘clear out,” and it is to be hoped that

this gentleman may in the future give the members of the Avicultural

vSociety the benefit of his experience with these and other foreign cage

birds. If he does not do so it will not be for lack of material, as his collec¬

tion I know already includes more than two hundred specimens.


Henry J. Fuerjames.



FORSTEN’S LORIKEETS.


Sir,—I believe some of our members have had past experience with

the above-named birds. I have recently received a very fine pair, and, with

your permission, should like a little information on the following points :


First, what is the difference in the sexes? Have they ever bred in



