FALOIJNCULUS. 69 



Genus FALCUNCULUS, Vieilht. 



^ FALCUNOULUS FRONTATUS, LatJiam. 



Frontal Shrike-tit. 

 Gould, liandb. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 129, p. 228. lEZZ^- 9. 



"Although this species breeds freely in the neiglibourliood of 

 Sydney, its nest is seldom met with, and its eggs are still rarer. 

 This arises chiefly from the inaccessible places in which the birds 

 build, these being mostly the very tops of the tall Eucalypti, 

 so that even when found they are seldom procurable. The 

 nest is a deep cup-shaped structure of fine shreds of bark 

 strongly woven together, strengthened with cobweb, and lined 

 with grasses. The eggs seldom three in number, resemble those of 

 Myiagra nitida, Gould, but are more elongated, white, with a 

 few dots of greyish-lilac and slaty-black sprinkled over the surface, 

 but in some cases crowded on the thicker end, or even confluent, 

 forming spots or irregular short linear markings. Length (A) 

 0-9 X 0-65 inch (Dr. Hurst's Coll.) ; (B) 0-85 x 0-63 inch ; (C) 

 0'92 X 0'64 ; B and C have no irregular markings on the shell 

 merely a few minute dots, almost black." (^Ramsay, P.L.H., JV.S. W. 

 i^nd 'Series, Vol. i., p. 1146.) 



Scd). Rockingham Bay, Wide Bay District, Richmond and 

 Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior, Victoria 

 and South Australia. {Ramsay.) 



3->- FALCUNCULUS LEUCOGASTER, Gould. 



White-bellied Shrike-tit. 

 Gould, Handhh. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 130, p. 229. 



" This bird is a native of Western Australia. Gilbert, while 

 staying in the Toodyay district in the month of October, found the 

 nest of this species among the topmost and weakest perpendicular 

 branches of a Eucalyptus, at a height of fifty feet ; it was of a 

 deep cup-shaped form, comp6sed of the stringy bark of the gum- 



