BUFF-BREASTED FLYEATER. 
Figured. Collected at Napier Broome Bay, North-west Australia, on the 16th of 
June, 1910, and is the type of Gerygone Icevigaster broomei. (Middle figure.) 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature. Are paler above, and have a yellow wash on the throat, eyebrow and 
ear-coverts. 
Nest. “ Dome-shaped with hooded entrance . . . composed of fine long grass-stalks 
and coarser shreds, and on the outside are fastened on with cobweb, numerous 
round white scale larvae, cocoons, pieces of lichen and excreta of caterpillars, and 
it is lined with very fine grass and a soft white material. Length, 84 inches, width 
2J ; nesting-chamber 2 inches deep by 1| wide. (Le Souef.) 
Eggs. Clutch, two. White, speckled over with small reddish-brown markings, most 
numerous on the larger end, where they generally form a zone, 16-17 mm. by 11. 
(Le Souef.) 
Breeding-season. January to March. (Le Souef.) 
Gilbert’s researches in Port Essington revealed three species of this group, 
and Gould gave his notes in this connection thus : “ Gilbert killed several 
specimens of this little bird on the Cobourg Peninsula, and on the islands in 
Van Diemen’s Gulf, and sometimes observed a solitary individual among the 
mangroves near the settlement of Port Essington. He states that it has a 
very pleasing but weak piping note, and occasionally utters a number of notes 
in slow succession, but not so much lengthened as those of the Gerygone culicivora 
of Swan River ; like that bird, it hovers before the smaller leafy branches of 
the trees and creeps about the thickets. It is very tame, and scarcely ever 
flies from the tree upon the approach of an intruder, but sits turning its little 
head about from side to side until the hand is almost upon it, when it merely 
hops upon another branch and again quietly looks about, apparently quite 
unconcerned. The stomach is tolerably muscular, and the food consists of 
small insects, principally of the soft-winged kinds.” 
Of this Campbell wrote : “ One i, three $$$. Although the foregoing 
species ( magnirostris ) is also “ Buff-breasted ” — indeed, more so than this — 
Icevigaster from the Roper River can be easily separated by its white brow 
and white under the eye. It is identical with North-west Australian (Napier 
Broome Bay) examples — broomei (Mathews).” 
I wish I were able to dismiss so lightly the difficulties in connection with 
the subspecific forms of this species. I have specimens from Sampan Creek, 
Van Diemen’s Gulf, which in view of the data above, can be regarded as typical. 
In addition they agree accurately with the description given by Gould, and 
it is possible that the Roper River specimens above mentioned are mastersi 
and not levigaster at all. The character given by Campbell is a noticeable 
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