CATERPILLAR-EATER. 
feathers, the outer feathers cream-white with dark shafts ; a huffy white line over 
the eye ; ear-coverts greyish-white ; throat, breast, and sides of the body white with 
dark streaks to the feathers which are wider on the upper-breast becoming narrower 
on the lower-breast and sides of the body ; abdomen and lower flanks white ; 
under tail-coverts and under wing-coverts also white with dark shaft-streaks ; 
lower aspect of tail dark brown, buffy-white on the outer feathers. Eyes black, 
feet pale grey, bill black, lower mandible yellow. Collected at Normanton, 
Queensland, on the 6th of March, 1914. 
Nestling. General colour of the upper-surface smoke-brown with fulvous edgings to the 
feathers ; crown of head smoke-brown with pale shaft-streaks to the feathers ; 
greater upper wing-coverts, bastard-wing, primary-coverts and flight-quills blackish- 
brown with fulvous margins to the feathers, which are much increased at the base 
and apical portion of the secondaries, and gives the appearance of pale and dark 
patches on the wing ; tail blackish-brown with slightly paler edges to the feathers, 
the outer feather on each side almost entirely cream colour, the next pair margined 
with the same colour on the outer web ; rictal bristles black ; throat dull white ; 
breast and abdomen buffy-white with smoke-brown edges to some of the feathers ; 
under-surface of wing pale brown ; lower aspect of tail white on the outer feathers 
and blackish-brown on the central ones. Collected on Rottnest Island, off West 
Australia, on the 10th of August, 1903. 
Nest. Shallow, saucer-shaped. Placed on a horizontal fork of a tree. Loosely composed 
of grass and small twigs, with leaves adhering, no lining. The outside woven 
together with cobweb and decorated with pieces of bark and cocoons. Outside 
measurements 3| inches wide by about 1 to 2 deep. Inside 2 wide by f deep. 
Eggs. Clutch, 3. Ground-colour bluish-green, heavily blotched with reddish. 21 mm. 
by 15. (Derby.) 
Breeding- season. September or October to January. (July, August-December to March.) 
Gould described this species as Geblepyris humeralis, and under this specific 
name continually referred to it, overlooking the fact that Swainson had given 
it a name, using the same generic name a dozen years previously. 
Gould’s observations read : “ This bird occurs in considerable numbers 
throughout the southern portion of Australia during the months of summer ; 
it is strictly migratory, arriving in the month of September, and haying 
performed the task of reproduction, departs again northwards in the months 
of January and February. It is a most animated, lively, and spirited bird, 
constantly singing a loud and pretty song, while actively engaged in pursuit 
of insects, which it captures on the wing, among the branches, or on the ground. 
It commences breeding soon after its arrival, constructing a shallow round 
nest of small pieces of bark, short dead twigs and grasses interwoven with 
fine vegetable fibres, cobwebs, white moss, etc., and sometimes a few grasses 
and fine fibrous roots by way of lining ; it is usually placed in the fork of a 
horizontal dead branch of the Angophorce and Eucalypti and is not easily seen 
from below. During the early part of the breeding -season the male frequently 
chases the female from tree to tree, pouring forth his song all the while. In 
his notes from Western Australia Gilbert says : 4 This bird is a migratory 
147 
