^^76 NESTS AXD AG'Gi' OJ^ AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



313. — Glycvphila modesta, Gray. 

 BROWN-BACKED HONEYEATER. 



Fi^'wre. — Gould-Sharpe : Birds of New Guinea, vol. iii,, pi. 46. 



Reference — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus , vol. i.x., p 215 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Ramsay : P.Z.S., p. 385 (1868) ; Campbell : 

 Victorian Naluralist (1887): North: Austn. Mus. Cat., app., 

 pi. 13, fig. 10 (iSgo); Campbell: Proc Austn Assoc , vol vii , 

 p. 600(1898;. 



Geoyrapliiral Distributiuii. — North Queensland; also New Guinea 

 and Aru Islands. 



^'e■it.■ — Bulky, somewhat long in shape, domed, with a hooded side 

 entrance; composed of strips, narrow and broad, of the paper-hke 

 mclaleuca bark, matted together; Uned inside with softer bai-k of the 

 same kind ; usually suspended on a mclaleuca, particularly from a 

 branch overhanging water. Length 7i inches, diameter 3i inches; 

 entrance, wliich is about the centre of the structure, 1 inch across. 



Eggs. — Clutch, two, rarely three ; long oval in shape ; texture of 

 shell very fine ; surface without gloss ; colour, pure white, with here 

 and there very minute dark-brown, almost black, specks or dots. 

 Dimensions in inches; (1) 76 x -51, (2) -75 x -5. (Plate 13.) 



Observations. — The habitat of the Brown-backed or Dusky Honey- 

 cater is Northern Queensland, with an extension on the opposite coast 

 of New Guinea, about mclaleuca swamps. 



Diudng oiu- Cardwell camp I found a pair of these birds commencing 

 to build (7th September, 1885) their dome-shaped nest in their favourite 

 tree — a mclaleuca — overhanging a stream. 



With regard to the dome-shaped structui'e of the nest, it is worthy 

 of remark that while the two southern species — G. fulvifrons and 

 G. alhifrons — build cup-shaped or open nests, the two northern kinds — 

 G. fasciata and G. modesta — build coveredin stnictiu'es. This would 

 lead us to suppose, from an oological point of view, there was some 

 specific or sub-specific difference between the two sets of bu'ds. But, 

 possibly, the northern birds have been led to conceal their eggs, as 

 weU as to suspend the nest over water where it is difficult to reach, to 

 escape some natural enemy. Mr. Broadbcnt tells me a curious circmn- 

 stance respecting the nests of tliis Honcyeater found by him. Evci-y 

 one he noticed, both at Cardwell and Cape York, was situated just 

 above a hornet's nest. He adds, feelingly, " the small hornet that 

 follows you for a ll^mdred yai'ds or so and stings you on the back of 

 the neck." 



Mr. J. A. Boyd sent several sets of eggs of the Dusky Honcyeater 

 to the Australian Museum from the Herbert River, possibly that bird's 

 southern limit. Further north, on the Bloomfield River, Mr. Dudley 

 Le Souef found several of the dome-shaped nests, suspended generally 

 at a height of about eight feet from the ground in melalcuca saplings. 



