THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
trunks, stems, and branches of the trees, oft-times head downwards, creeping 
round and round the limbs, stopping only to disengage some insect from the 
bark, and calling to each other in a mournful monotonous cry; they fly off to 
repeat the same actions on some other tree. They move along the forest at 
no mean pace, usually going in a direct line. The nest, like that of S. chrysoptera, 
is placed in an upright and usually dead fork of some high branch ; it is made 
of fine strips of bark with a large quantity of spiders’ webs, with which small 
scales of bark, resembling that of the branch in which it is placed, are felted 
on so carefully as hardly to be detected even at a comparatively short distance; 
the rim is very thin, the nest open above and very deep.” 
Berney has recorded from the Richmond District, North Queensland: 
“ Not to be seen very frequently. Its visits, generally in small parties of eight 
or thereabouts, do not appear to be confined to any one season of the year. 
Its feet are large for the size of the bird, but eminently adapted for running 
up or down the rough bark of trees. The peculiarly shaped bill, too—long 
and narrow, with a slight dip in the culmen—is beautifully suited for searching 
out insects in crevices. It hunts the foliage as w T ell as the trunks, and on the 
latter is just as much at home running head downward as going up.” 
A. J. Campbell added : “ Mr. F. L. Berney has forwarded me a specimen 
of a black-headed bird which he carefully dissected and proved to be a female. 
Therefore the descriptions of the sexes given in the Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. must 
be transposed. Mr. Berney has observed this Sittella breeding in March.” 
Barnard wrote “ Observed on several occasions running up and down 
the trees in forest country. None found breeding.” 
Macgillivray added little more : “ This is the Cape York bird. It is more 
frequent down the telegraph line from the 16-mile point to the Jardine River, 
in the tall bloodwood and stringy-bark forest.” 
Campbell recorded the species from the Cardwell district, but instead 
of giving field-notes, wrote about the citation by Broadbent and Ramsay of 
N. leucoptera for this district, ignorant of the fact that the latter had corrected 
his error and given field-notes of the species as above quoted. As to Broadbent’s 
record it may be noted that he gave tw T o species, and at the time the paper 
was published in the Emu the editors (one of which was Campbell himself) 
gave a footnote which reads: “These notes were made during a collecting tour 
undertaken by Mr. Broadbent from August, 1888, to March, 1889. The some¬ 
what belated paper by the veteran collector is none the less valuable because 
the collection therein detailed is in the Queensland Museum, and available 
for reference for students and others.” It is now necessary for Campbell himself 
to refer to the collection and publish the facts in connection with Broadbent’s 
determination as above queried. 
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