BROWN FLYCATCHER. 
flight-quills and middle tail-feathers, with pale tips and edgings to the outer and inner 
webs of the former ; middle tail-feathers tipped with white, the white increasing 
in extent on the lateral feathers towards the outermost on each side, which is 
pure white ; sides of face rather paler than the back ; throat and under-surface, 
including the under tail-coverts, white ; the feathers on the breast and sides of 
the body streaked or tipped with brown ; axillaries and under wing-coverts 
isabelline ; quills below dark hair-brown with white inner edges ; lower aspect 
of tail for the most part white, with dark brown central feathers. Collected at 
Parry’s Creek, North-west Australia, on the 26th of January, 1909. 
The following is a description of the type specimen of Microeca 'pallida De Vis : — 
Adult male (which I described in 1907). General colour above uniform ashy- brown ; 
the wing-coverts like the back ; the greater series dark brown, externally ashy- 
brown ; some of this series with narrow whitish edges near the ends ; primary- 
coverts and primaries dark brown, with ashy-brown edges, the quills with white 
margins round the ends ; the secondaries dark brown, with whitish edgings and 
fringes to the tips of the feathers, the smaller innermost secondaries ashy-brown 
like the back ; tail-feathers dark brown, almost blackish, the centre feathers with 
a narrow fringe of white at the tips, this being represented by a broad white tip to 
the third outer feather, the penultimate rectrix being white for the entire terminal 
third, the remaining two-thirds being blackish-brown to the base of the feather, the 
whole of the outer web being white, except at the extreme base, which is brown • 
the shaft being white or brown, according to the adjacent white or brown colour 
of the feather ; outer tail-feather entirely white, with white shaft ; lores white ; 
over the eye an indistinct whitish streak ; sides of the face ashy-brown, like the 
head slightly mottled with whitish below the eye ; cheeks and throat white ; fore- 
neck, breast, and sides of the body pale ashy-brown ; abdomen and under tail- 
coverts white, slightly shaded with ashy ; thighs pale ashy-brown tinged with 
fawn colour ; under wing-coverts dull whitish, the axillaries fawn-buff like the 
under wing-coverts ; lower primary-coverts light ashy ; quills dusky-brown, 
light ashy or whitish along the inner edge of the quills. Total length about 110 
mm. ; culmen 10, wing 78, tail 46, tarsus 15. 
Nest. Saucer-shaped, about half an inch deep inside. Composed of fine grass with 
pieces of bark on the outside, fastened on with cobweb ; about 2J to 3 inches 
over all. 
Eggs. Clutch, two ; ground-colour greenish-blue, spotted and blotched with reddish- 
brown, sometimes on the larger end. 19 mm. to 21 by 14. 
Breeding-season. August to December. 
The earliest notes on this species seem to be those of Mr. Caley, who wrote : 
“ The bird has all the actions of the British Robin Redbreast, except coming 
inside houses. When a piece of ground was fresh dug, it was always a constant 
attendant. The boys call it Winter.” 
Gould then gave a good descriptive account : “ This bird is generally 
dispersed over the colonies of New South Wales (including Victoria) and 
South Australia, where it inhabits nearly every kind of situation, from the 
open forest lands 1 of the interior to the brushes of thickly -grown trees near 
the sea-coast, shrubs not a yard high and the branches of the highest gum- 
trees being alike resorted to. It is certainly one of the least ornamental of the 
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