18 Bird-Song : and New Zealand Song Birds 
Family: Muscicapidae 
THE FLYCATCHERS 
Britain has two representatives of this family, the spotted 
flycatcher, and the pied flycatcher, both summer visitors. The 
former, apparently, has no song, whilst that of the latter is 
very feeble. 
New Zealand has two flycatchers, known as fantails: 
Rhipidura flabellifera the pied fantail piwakawaka 
Rhipidura fuliginosa the black fantail tiwakawaka 
The pied fantail. —Head and neck blackish-grey with white 
throat and eyebrows: the back brown, the breast and abdomen 
yellowish-rufous: the two middle tail-feathers black with white 
tips, the outer ones white, the intermediate white with outer 
webs partly black, all shafts white: eyes and bill black, feet 
blackish-brown. Length inches, of which the tail is 4 inches. 
The sexes are similar. In the young the upper surface is more 
01 less shaded with rufous, the lower surface with tawny. 
The black fantail. Head and neck greyish-black, with a 
white spot over each ear,- rest of the body dark chocolate- 
brown ; quills dark brown, tail black: eyes and bill black, the 
latter white at the base of the lower mandible. Length 6|- 
inches, of which the tail is 4 inches. # 
Eggs. Four; white, marked with brown freckles or small 
patches, arranged in somewhat circular fashion towards the 
laiger end; length y of an inch, breadth an inch. There are 
tv o or three broods in a season, a new nest being built for 
each brood. 
NesT. A beautiful structure, built with no attempt at 
concealment, preferably near water, where the birds find much 
o their insect food. Both birds take part in the building, 
Zealand n ^ WnL are from Hutton and Drummond’s Animals of Neio 
Zealand, and Buller’s History of the Birds of New Zealand. 
