The head and the body both above and below are deep black, the feathers of the head with a crescent, and those of the body, particularly of the breast, with a spot of deep metallic green at the tip; wings and tail deep glossy green; under wing-coverts black tipped with white; irides brownish red; bill and feet blackish brown. The Plate represents a specimen procured at Port Essington of the natural size, and I may remark that examples obtained in that locality are somewhat smaller than those killed on the north-western and eastern coasts. [Illustration: RHIPIDURA ALBISCAPA: _Gould_. _J. & E. Gould del._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] RHIPIDURA ALBISCAPA, _Gould_. White-shafted Fantail. _Rhipidura flabellifera_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 247, excl. of Syn.—Swains. Nat. Lib. Orn., vol. x.: Flycatchers, p. 124, pl. 10; and Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 257. _Rhipidura albiscapa_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., September 8, 1840. It would appear that two species of Fantailed Flycatchers have hitherto been confounded under one specific appellation; for if a comparison be made, it will be obvious to every one, that the bird here represented is quite distinct from that described and figured by Latham, in the sixth volume of his “General History of Birds,” as _Motacilla flabellifera_, and which he states is a native of New Zealand. It is true, the Australian birds from different localities present considerable variations in the depth of their colour, still they never have the lateral tail-feathers entirely white as in the New Zealand bird: specimens from Van Diemen’s Land are always much darker than those of the continent, and have the tail-feathers less marked with white; others from Western Australia, again, are somewhat lighter in colour, and have the white markings of the tail more extensive than in those collected in South Australia or New South Wales. The accompanying illustration represents the darkest of these varieties, and with the nest and plant (_Culcitium salicinum_) was drawn in Van Diemen’s Land. Judging from what facts I could gather respecting the economy of the White-shafted Fantail, I am induced to regard it as a permanent resident rather than a migratory species, changing its localities according to the season of the year; resorting to the more open parts during the summer months, and retiring in autumn to thick brushes and warm secluded gullies, where it still finds a supply of food, such as _aphides_ and other small insects, upon which it almost exclusively subsists.