PIEZORHYNCHUS NITIDUS, Gow. 
Shining Flycatcher. 
Piezorhynchus nitidus, Gould, in Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1840, p- 171. 
Ung-bur-ka, Aborigines of Port Essington. 
I HERE give a representation of a Flycatcher whose habitat, so far as we know, is restricted to the northern 
portions of Australia. It is by no means scarce at Port Essington; but, from the extreme shyness of its 
disposition and the situation it inhabits, it is seldom seen ; Specimens, in fact, are not procured without con- 
siderable trouble and difficulty, As I have not myself seen the bird in its native haunts, I shall transcribe, 
with as little alteration as possible, Mr. Gilbert’s notes respecting tt :—** Inhabits the densest mangroves and 
thickets, and is usually seen creeping about close to the ground among the fallen trees in the swamps, at 
which time it utters a note so closely resembling the croak of a frog that it might easily be mistaken for 
the voice of that animal. This peculiar note would seem to be only emitted while the bird is feeding on the 
ground ; for when it occasionally mounts to the higher branches of the trees, it utters a rather pleasing 
succession of sounds resembling éit-te-twite ; on the slightest disturbance it immediately descends again to 
the underwood and recommences its frog-like note. The nest is either built among the mangroves or on 
the verge of a thicket near an open spot. One that I found among the mangroyes was built on a seedling 
tree not more than three feet from the ground ; another was on a branch overhanging a small running 
stream, within reach of the hand; while a third, constructed on the branches of the trees bordering a clear 
space in the centre of a dense thicket, was at least twenty feet high. The nest at all times so closely re- 
sembles the surrounding branches that it is very difficult to detect unless the birds are very closely watched ; 
in some instances it looks so like an excrescence of the tree, and in others is so deeply seated in the fork 
whereon it is placed, that it can only be discovered when the bird is sitting upon it. The nest is about two 
inches and a half in height and three and a quarter in diameter, is of a cup-shaped form, with the rim 
brought to a sharp edge, and is outwardly composed of the stringy bark of an Excalyptus, hound together on 
the outside with vegetable fibres, among which in some instances cobwebs are mixed ; all over the outside 
of the nest small pieces of bark resembling portions of lichens are attached, some of them hanging by a 
single thread and moving about with every breath of air; the internal surface is lined with a strong wiry 
thread-like fibrous root, whereby the whole structure is rendered nearly as firm as if it were bound with 
wire,” 
The eggs, which are two in number, are ten lines long and seven lines broad, of a bluish white, blotched 
and spotted all over with olive and greyish brown, the spots of the latter hue being less numerous and more 
obscure, the spots inclining towards the form of a zone at the larger end. 
The food consists of insects of various kinds. 
The male has the whole of the plumage rich deep glossy greenish black, irides dark brown, bill greyish 
blue at the base, black at the tip, tarsi greenish grey. 
The female has the top and sides of the head and the back of the neck rich deep glossy greenish black, 
the remainder of the upper surface, wings and fail rusty brown, and the whole of the under surface white. 
The figures are those of a male and a female, of the natural size. 
