114 



The ahove nest is an open shallow structure rather irregularly 

 and roughly formed on the exterior, but neatly rounded on the 

 inside, and is composed entirely of the long pliant stems of a species 

 of Keitnedya, it measures exteriorly seven inches and a-half in 

 diameter by three inclies and a-half in depth, internal diameter 

 four inches, depth one inch and three-quarters. Eggs three in 

 number for a sitting, oval in for'm of a dull apple-green, regularly 

 spotted and blotched over the surface of the shell with different 

 shades of reddish and purplish-brown, underlying blotches of 

 purple appearing as if beneath the shell. Length (A) 1'25 xO'9, 

 (B) 1"25 X 0"89 inch. These eggs are paler, but more heavily 

 blotched than the specimens taken by Mr. R. D. Fitzgerald on the 

 Richmond River in November 1887, and subsequently described 

 by him in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales, Vol. ii., Second Series, 1887, p. 970. 



Hab. Eastern Queensland, Eastern New S(jutii Wales. 



Ptilotis flavicollis, Vieillot. Yellow-throated Honey-eater. 

 Gould^ Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 310, p. 508. 



The habitat of the Yellow-throated Honey-eater is confined I 

 believe to Tasmania and the islands of Bass's Straits, although it 

 has been recorded from Victoria, I have never met with this bird 

 anywhere on the mainland of Australia. Dr. L. Holden has 

 kindly forwarded a nest and two eggs of this species, which he 

 found on the 29th of November, 1890, at Circular Head, on the 

 North-west Coast of Tasmania, accompanied with the following 

 note : — "The nest of P. Jiavicollis, I send you was built against 

 the main stem of a low, scraggy, and scanty box shrub, about 

 three feet and a-half from the ground ; the shrub was draped with 

 vines of a climbing plant, some alive and green, others dead and 

 brown, the latter serving to conceal by similarity the exterior of 

 the nest. Tlie Yellow-throated Honey-eater has been seen here 

 gathering hair for its nest from the backs of cows and a pony 

 belonging to me." The nest is an open cup shaped structure, 

 outwardly composed of stri2:)s of bark, grasses, weeds, and sheep's 

 wool, all matted together, and thickly lined inside with a layer 

 of cow-hair, the walls of the nest being very much thicker than 

 any I have met with belonging to other members of the genus 

 rtiJotis, it measures exteriorly live inches in diameter, by three 

 inches and a-half in depth ; internal diametei' two inches and a- 

 half, by two inches in depth. 



Eggs in this instance, two in number for a sitting, ova,l in form 

 of a tleshy-buff' ground colour, becoming darker towards tlie larger 

 end where they are irregularly spotted with rounded clouded 

 markings of reddish-chestnut, and underlying spots of purple 

 appearing as if beneath the surface of tiie shell. Length (A) 

 0-95 X 0-7 ; (B) 0-91 x 0-7 inch. 



Hab. Tasmania, Islands of Bass's Straits. 



