122 THE BIRDS OF THE COBEORA DISTRICT. 



covering, while the nest of P. riilicivora is always constructed of greyish material. They usually lay 

 three eggs for a sitting, and about a dozen nests I have examined containing eggs were all found 

 between October 22nd and November 27th. 



Pseudogerygone culicivora (Western Fly-eater). — Always met with in pairs. Some years during 

 the spring and summer months they are rather plentiful, but they do not remain here during the 

 winter. Breeding here freely, their nests are usually placed low down, often within a few feet of 

 the ground, and as I have mentioned in my notes of the preceding species, their nests can always be 

 distinguished from each other by the colour. They are generally decorated with bits of newspaper 

 if available, or whitish egg-bags of spiders, and some nests have exceptionally long tails. Although 

 I have examined a great number of their nests, I have never found one containing an egg of a Cuckoo. 

 They mostly lay three eggs for a sitting, which show considerable variation in the markings. I 

 have taken their eggs from September 23rd till as late as December 3rd. 



Nest of the Western Fly-eater (Pseudogerygone culicivora). 



Rhipidura albiscapa (White-shafted Fantail). — Rather a common species in suitable country, 

 more especially during the spring and summer ; generally met with in pairs, often returning to 

 the same locality year after year. They breed here, but owing to the birds being exceptionally 

 close sitters, and also the nest being usually placed in a whitegum sapling, the branches of which are 

 so much the same colour as the nest, it is very difficult to find. I have put my hand within a few 

 inches of a sitting bird before it would leave the nest. They generally lay three eggs for a sitting 

 in the month of October. 



Rhipidura tricolor (Black and White Fantail). — Very common throughout the district, but 

 being a lover of water it is more frequently met with in the vicinity of same, and it appears to have 

 a friendship for the Magpie Lark, often building its nest in the same tree, but much lower down. 

 They also very often take up their abode about dwellings ; one pair have been about my house for 

 many years, breeding in the grape vines growing on the verandah, where I have known them to rear 



