In its disposition this little bird is one of the tamest imaginable, allowing of a near approach without evincing the slightest timidity, and will even enter the houses of persons resident in the bush in pursuit of gnats and other insects. During the breeding-season, however, it exhibits extreme anxiety at the sight of an intruder in the vicinity of its nest, the site of which is always betrayed by its becoming more agitated and active in its movements as he draws near: if approached unobserved, it may be often seen mounting in the air and singing while its mate is performing the duty of incubation. From what I have here stated it will be seen that this species has a most extensive range over the southern portion of Australia, and in all probability it will be found in every part of that vast country. Adult birds from Van Diemen’s Land have the whole of the upper surface, ear-coverts, and a band across the chest sooty black, slightly tinged with olive, the tail, crown of the head, and pectoral band being rather the darkest; stripe over the eye, lunar-shaped mark behind the eye, throat, tips of the wing-coverts, margins of the secondaries, shafts, outer webs and tips of all but the two middle tail-feathers white; under surface buff; eyes black; bill and feet brownish black. The figures are of the natural size. [Illustration: RHIPIDURA RUFIFRONS. _J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._ ] RHIPIDURA RUFIFRONS. Rufous-fronted Fantail. _Muscicapa rufifrons_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Suppl., p. 1.—Vieill. 2nde Edit. du Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxi. p. 465.—Bonn. et Vieill. Ency. Méth. Orn., part ii. p. 809. _Orange-rumped Flycatcher_, Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pl. 13. _Rufous-fronted Flycatcher_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl., vol. ii. p. 220.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. x. p. 373.—Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vi. p. 213. _Rhipidura rufifrons_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 248.—Less. Man. d’Orn., tom. i. p. 199. _Bur-ril_, Aborigines of New South Wales.