S50 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTHALIAN BIRDS. 



yellow undi'i- tail covurts and a broad zona ot white featiiers round 

 the c\H'. 



287. — ZosTERops GOULDI, Bonaparte. — (361) 



GREEN-BACKED WHITE EYE. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv., pi, 82, 

 Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. ix., p. 162 



Previous Descriptions 0/ Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia (1848) ; also 

 Handbook, vol. i., p, 589 (1865). 



Gi'iigraphical Distrihutiuii. — West Australia. 



Nest. — Cup-shaped ; composed of fine grass, interwoven with green 

 and golden-coloured moss ; inside hned sparingly with long horse hairs 

 and downy substance of plants, the whole sometimes so thin that the 

 structure may be seen through from underneath ; suspended usually in a 

 bush or low tree. Dimensions over all, 3 inches by 2 inches in depth ; 

 egg cavity, 1| inches across by IJ inches deep. 



Eggs. — Clutch, two to four ; oval in form ; texture veiy fine ; 

 surface slightly glossy ; colour, uniform light blui.sh-green (a shade 

 lighter in colour than those of Z. cceritJc^cens). Dimensions of a 

 clutch in inches : (1) -68 x -48, (2) -66 x -48, (3) -Gr^ x 48. 



Ohf-ervatiiins. — This lively bird is the western representative of the 

 familiar White Eye or Grey-backed Zosterops of Eastern Australia. 



In Western Australia I observed the Green-backed White Eye every- 

 where — in the thick forests of Cape Leeuwin, in the drier tracts of the 

 Champion Bav District, where I saw the birds dipping their heads into 

 the bell-shaped flowers of the native hibiscus, and even on soUtary 

 islands, the abode mostly of sea-fowl. 



At Kamdale. 28th October, 1899, I found two nests; one contained 

 a fresh egg, the other a pair of naked, yellowish-fleshed .squabs with 

 more conspicuous yellow gapes. Again, a nest found at Quindalup. 8th 

 November, contained a lovely set of pale bluish eggs. All these nests 

 were built low, apparently in any convenient bush. Like its eastern 

 ally, the Green-backed White Eye is a nuisance in a fruit garden and has 

 earned for itself the name of Grape or Fig-eater from its partiality to 

 these fruits. 



According to Gould, Gilbert wrote concerning the breeding season, 

 that it commences in August and ends in November, and that those 

 nests which came imder his observation diu-ing the earlier part of the 

 season invariably contained two eggs, but in October and November he 

 usually found three and upon one occasion, four. 



