125. Falcunculus frontatus Vol. II. Pl. 79. 126. Falcunculus leucogaster, _Gould_ Vol. II. Pl. 80. Mr. Gilbert states that while staying in the Toodyay district of Western Australia in the month of October, he found the nest of this species among the topmost and weakest perpendicular branches of a Eucalyptus, at a height of at least fifty feet: it was of a deep cup-shaped form, composed of the stringy bark of the gum-tree, and lined with fine grasses, the whole matted together externally with cobwebs; the eggs, which are three or four in number, are of a glossy white with numerous minute speckles of dark olive most thickly disposed at the larger end; they are seven-eighths of an inch long by five-eighths of an inch in breadth. He adds, that under ordinary circumstances it is a somewhat shy bird, but when breeding becomes bold and familiar; as an evidence of which he adduces the fact that a flock of sheep were driven every night beneath the tree upon which the nest was being constructed without giving the least alarm to the birds. Genus OREOÏCA, _Gould_. Generic characters. _Bill_ shorter than the head, stout, compressed laterally, and notched at the tip; _culmen_ bent gradually downwards from the base; lower mandible nearly as stout as the upper; _nostrils_ basal, round, and nearly covered with very fine short hair-like feathers directed forwards, among which are intermingled a few long fine hairs; _wings_ rather long, the first quill short, the third the longest; tertiaries very long, and nearly equalling the primaries; _tail_ short and very slightly rounded; _tarsi_ moderately long and stout, entire posteriorly, and defended anteriorly with hard scuta; feet adapted for the ground; _toes_ very short, particularly the hind one, inner toe rather shorter than the outer; _claws_ short, and nearly straight. The only species known of this form is strictly Australian, and is a sprightly animated bird frequenting the sterile districts studded with large trees, scrubs, and open glades, where it hops about on the ground in search of insects. Notwithstanding the singularly lengthened form of its scapularies and its terrestrial habits, it appears to me to belong to the same type of form as the _Pachycephalæ_; its loud piping note and mode of nidification also favours this opinion. It lays three or four eggs, in a round, cup-shaped nest, placed either in a grass tree (_Xanthorrhœa_) or in a hole or stump of a decayed upright tree. 127. Oreoïca gutturalis Vol. II. Pl. 81. Genus DICRURUS, _Vieill._ A genus of which many species inhabit India and Africa, but of which only one has yet been found in Australia. 128. Dicrurus bracteatus, _Gould_ Vol. II. Pl. 82. Family MUSCICAPIDÆ, _Vig._ Genus RHIPIDURA, _Vig. & Horsf._