RHIPIDURA. 
85 
bark of which it is composed. The interior of the nest is lined 
entirely with fine fibrous roots, and the rim of the nest is very thin; 
external diameter one and seven-eighths of an inch, depth one 
and three-quarters of an inch, length of stem below the nest, 
two inches, thickness near the end one quarter of an inch; internal 
diameter one and seven-eighths of an inch, depth one and one- 
eighth of an inch. 
The nest of this bird is placed in a variety of situations, some 
times on the thin branch of a Melaleuca within a few feet of the 
ground, but not unfrequently on one of the topmost branches of 
an Acacia or tall gum-sapling twenty feet from the ground. Eggs 
two or three in number for a sitting, of a dull, and in some instances 
creamy-white ground colour, thickly spotted with brown markings, 
intermingled with a few obsolete spots of bluish-grey towards the 
larger end, where they become confluent and form a well defined 
zone. Dimensions of a set taken at Macquarie Fields, length 
(A) 0'62 x 05 inch; (B) 061 x 048 inch; (C) 06 x 0'5 inch. 
A set taken at the mouth of the Yarra, near Melbourne, are of 
a dull white, with the brown markings more clouded and evenly 
dispersed over the whole surface ; length (A) 066 x 0-48 inch ; 
(B) 064 x 0'5 inch ; (C) 061 x 0-48 inch. 
This species commences to breed in October and continues the 
two following months. 
Ilab. Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, 
Richmond and Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, 
Interior, Victoria, and South Australia. (Ramsay.) 
RIIIPIDURA DIEMENENSIS, Sharpe. 
Tasmanian Fantail. 
Sharpe , Brit. Mus. Cat. Bds., Vol. iv., p. 311. 
“Two eggs taken near Hobart, in October, 1885, are of a dull 
white colour, thickly freckled all over with creamy-brown markings 
