THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
aspect of the tail blackish-brown, banded and marked with white. Eyes light 
red. Bill and feet black. Total length 100 mm. ; culmen 8, wing 60, tarsus 17.5, 
tail 43. Figured. Collected at Rutherglen, Victoria, on the 18th of October, 1899, 
and is the type of Gerygone culicivora exsul. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Nest. “ Pear-shaped in form with an entrance near the top, slightly sheltered with a 
small hood. . . . outwardly it is formed of very fine strips of bark, dried grasses, 
spider’s cocoons ... all matted up together. Lined with dried grass and a few 
feathers.” (North.) 
Eggs. Clutch, three ; pinkish-white, marked, more at the larger end, with reddish-brown ; 
15 to 17 mm. by 11-12. 
Breeding-season. October to January. 
This is another of Gould’s species of Gerygone and his notes read : “ This 
species is plentifully dispersed over the colony of Swan River in Western 
Australia, where it inhabits forests, scrubs and all situations where flowering 
trees abound, and where it is seen either in pairs or in small groups of 
four or five in number. Its food consists wholly of aphides and other small 
insects, which are captured on the wing or from off the flowers ; it some- 
times traverses the smaller branches, and even the upright boles of trees, 
prying about and searching for its prey with the most scrutinising care. 
Its powers of flight are rarely exerted for any other purpose than to convey 
it from shrub to shrub, and for its little sallies in pursuit of insects, much 
after the manner of the true Flycatchers. Its notes are very varied, being 
at one time a singing kind of whistle, and at others a somewhat pleasing 
and plaintive melody ; but it has a singular habit of uttering, when flitting 
from tree to tree, a succession of notes and half -notes, some of which are 
harmoniously blended, while others are equally discordant.” 
Mr. E. J. Christian has written me from. Victoria: “These little birds 
are not common here on the plains, but as one goes south towards the timber 
and where the country gets higher they can frequently be seen. I have seen 
them while driving in the timber, but I have only seen a single specimen here 
and he was extremely tame. He darted round my head and was never still. 
He would sit on a dry thistle and then dart up and flutter in front of my face 
and then over my hat. I watched him for a long while, till he flew away.” 
Mr. A. G. Campbell has observed : “ The first eggs recorded for Eastern 
Australia were taken by myself at Rutherglen, North-east Victoria, Sept. 22, 
1899. Several pairs of birds frequented an isolated patch of eucalypt timber, 
but across the Murray, in New South Wales, twenty miles farther north, 
the species was found at home in pine tree ( Gallitris ) scrub. The male bird 
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