. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . large cities. Masters, Curator of the Macleay Museum at the Sydney University, informs me thatwhile engaged m entomological duties at his table near a window one day, one of these birdsfound its way into the building. After flying several times backwards and forwards the lengthof the Museum, it finally selected as a resting place the top of his head, and there it remainedfor some time until he attempted to put his hand near it. Although found close to or in Sydnev in autumn and winter, I have only known it tobreed i
. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . large cities. Masters, Curator of the Macleay Museum at the Sydney University, informs me thatwhile engaged m entomological duties at his table near a window one day, one of these birdsfound its way into the building. After flying several times backwards and forwards the lengthof the Museum, it finally selected as a resting place the top of his head, and there it remainedfor some time until he attempted to put his hand near it. Although found close to or in Sydnev in autumn and winter, I have only known it tobreed in the gullies on the highlands of the Milsons Point railway-line, beyond Chatswoodand Roseville, or in the humid scrubs and gullies at National Park and Waterfall. The food of this species consists entirely of small insects, flies, small moths, etc., capturedprincipally while on the wing. Unlike the White-shafted Fantail, which frequently builds itsnest in fruit trees, it is seldom seen in orchards during the breeding season, unless contiguousto its usual RUFOUS-FRONTED FANTAIL. 128 The nest, like that of R. albiscapa, resembles in shape a wine-glass with the base broken offat the lower end of the stem, but it is somewhat larger and made of coarser material. Usually itis composed of shreds of bark, bound round and held together with cobwebs, the inside beinglined with black hair-like rootlets, dried grasses, or the fruiting stalks of mosses, the tail-likeappendage below the nest proper being of varying length and sometimes entirely absent. Anaverage nest measures externally two inches and a half in diameter by two inches in depth,internally two inches in diameter by one inch in depth, the tail-like appendage below the nestmeasuring three inches and a half. A nest received from Mr. J. Gabriel, and taken at Bayswater, ^ictoria, is built on themidrib of a fern frond, and is securely held in position by the nesting material being workedover the pinnae at each
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