











154 Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Fiz. 
Mr. Pearce tells me they scrape about the ground under 
bushes in the forest, for worms &c., and are quite like Black- 
birds in their habits and note. | 
PACHYCEPHALA VITIENSIS, Gray. 
Abundant at Kandavu, and apparently the only species 
there. Mr. Pearce obtained nests and eggs, shooting the male 
off one. The egg (a single one), hard-set, was large, irre- 
gularly marked at the obtuse end, somewhat in the shape of 
a ring, with large ill-formed purplish blotches. Breeds in 
September. 
The nest is a coarse transparent structure of thickish root- 
lets, with here and there a patch of cobweb. No lining of 
any kind. External diam. 4”, intern. 2” 6"; ext. depth 2” 6”, 
intern. 1” 6”; placed in a low shrub between two lateral 
branches. 
The genus Pachycephala is widely distributed over these 
‘islands; and the species composing it differ, as do those of 
Myiolestes ; | am only just getting to have some clear idea 
of them. On Ovalau, and up the Rewa, the true P. icteroides 
(Peale) seems to prevail; but in the former place specimens 
are sometimes found with the yellow patch on the nostril that 
characterizes P. graeffii, Hartl., but the yellow of the under- 
parts is not nearly so dark. About Tai Levu, on the N.E. 
coast of Viti Levu, a species is found with the light-yellow 
underparts of P. icteroides, but with a perfect though narrow 
black ring round the neck. I propose to call this P. inter- 
media, Layard, as it is intermediate between P. icteroides and 
my P. torquata on the one hand, and between the former and 
P. vitiensis on the other, the last-named having a white 
throat. | | 
At Bua, on Vanua Levu, P. graeffii, Hartl., prevails, and 
on Tavinui only my P. torquata. 
I suspect that a close investigation of some of the re- 
maining islands of the group will reveal other varieties of 
this genus. | 
Mr. Klinesmith has just discovered a new Lamprolia near 
Savu-Savu Bay, on Vanua Levu, which resembles L. victoria, 


= big tari FF SE ENE ae A 




























