THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
much more broadly tipped ; the margins to the feathers on the back narrower 
and darker, inclining to deep chestnut ; upper wing-coverts dark brown with buff 
or smoky-white tips to the feathers which is scarcely perceptible on the bastard- 
wing and absent on the primary-coverts and flight-quills except the inner second- 
aries, which are margined with whitish grey ; tail only partially developed, has 
the middle feathers black, the outer ones broadly tipped with white, dark brown 
at the base, and the outer web of the outermost feather entirely white ; chin and 
throat whitish with dark bases to the feathers ; fore-neck rust-brown becoming 
paler on the breast, abdomen, under tail-coverts and tail below, all of which are 
buffy-white ; under tail-coverts also buff y- white ; under-surface of flight-quills, hair- 
brown. Collected at Olinda, Victoria, on the 1st of December, 1912. 
Young , with down still attached to the feathers. General colour above sooty-brown, 
including the head, back, and wings, becoming rufous-brown on the lower back ; 
upper wing-coverts tipped with buffy-white ; quills dark brown with pale edges 
to the innermost secondaries ; middle tail-feathers blackish, the outer ones 
becoming paler and tipped with white — the outermost pair almost entirely white ; 
throat and breast rufous-brown ; abdomen and under tail-coverts pinky-white. 
Collected in Tasmania in November 1903. 
Nest. “ Wineglass-shaped,” without the foot-piece. Composed of dried grass stems and 
shreds of bark held together with cobwebs and lined with finer material. The 
tail-piece varies in length. Outside measurement 2J to 2| inches by 1J to If 
inches in depth. Inside 1| by 1 inch. 
Eggs. Clutch, two to four sometimes. Ground-colour buff marked (sometimes forming 
a zone round the larger end) with rufous and lavender spots. 16-17 mm. 
by 12-13. , 
Breeding-season. October to January. 
When Forster visited. New Zealand he collected a majority of the common 
birds and his son George made paintings of them. Upon the 155th plate, still 
preserved in the British Museum (Natural History), is written : “ Fantailed 
Flycatcher, Lath., Gen. Syn., II., p. 340, No. 33, tab. 49, from this drawing.” 
The painting was made of a bird from New Zealand and is dated “ Dusky 
Bay, N.Z., March 28, 1773.” 
Gmelin gave a Latin name to Latham’s description, Muscicapa flabellifera, 
and this name was accepted by Latham later. It may be noted that Forster 
had described the species in detail and had given it the name Muscicapa 
ventilabrum, but his MS. was not published until 1844, long after his death, 
when Lichtenstein edited it. 
A figure of a similar bird appears among the Watling drawings, but 
nothing at all exactly alike, though it must have been quite a common bird. 
It may be that it was not just at the settlement, while Caley stated : “ The 
species is very common about Paramatta ; and I do not recollect having 
missed it at any period of the year.” 
When Vigors and Horsfield recorded the Australian birds in the Linnean 
Society’s collection they did not differentiate the New Zealand bird from the 
8 
