NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRAL/ AN BIRDS. 387 



very sparingly marked with spots and dots of dark purplish-brown, 

 almost blat'k, most of tho markings being on the apex or alwut the upper 

 quai-ter. Dimensions in inches of a proper pair : (1 ) 96 x -7, (2) 96 x '7 ; 

 of a full and larger sized clutch : (1) 1-07 x -72, (2) 1-05 x -72, (3) 1-02 x 

 ■72. (Plate 14.) 



Ohservntii)rif:. — This fine Honcyeater is common to tho forests and 

 scnibs of E;istern Australia, chiefly in the coa.stal region. It is doubtful 

 whether it is found at Cape York. I am not certain whether they 

 frequent the Cape Otway forest, but I have observed the bird as far 

 south as the Dandenongs, near Melbourne, where I have often 

 heai-d, as Gould describes it, its loud, ringing, whistling song. In 

 Gippsland, in the autumn, I have observed Lewin's or the Yellow-eared 

 Honeyeater feeding in the forest clearings on the fi-uit of the so-called 

 Kangaroo-apple bu.sh fSohnitim). Yellow-eared is the better name, for 

 it has a conspicuous oval spot of light vellow behind each ear, tho general 

 colour of the plumage being olive-green. Dimensions in inches : length 

 7A, wing 3f, tail 3§, bill f, tarsus |. 



The first nest I found of this species was in October, 1885. It was 

 about ten or twelve feet from the gi-ound in scrub, near the Fitzroy River, 

 Queensland. Tlie eggs, however, were addled, but there was no mis- 

 taking the identity of them and the nest, with its beautiful lining of 

 white silky .sub-stance. 



Tlie next nest that came under my observation was in the " Big 

 Scrub," Richmond River, New South Wales, where the birds are exceed- 

 ingly numerous, and where I often admired their graceful actions while 

 pirouetting in mid-air after insects. The nest, which contained two eggs, 

 was brought to me by scrub-fellers, who reported that it originally con- 

 tained three eggs (the number being usually a pair), and was taken in 

 a thick bush, about four feet from the ground. Tlie nest was constructed 

 of moss and dead leaves, and was lined with grass and a thick, warm ply 

 of thistle-down. Date, 18th November, 1891. 



Gould describes a nest — the first recorded of this species — he found 

 prettily situated in a creeper which overhung a small pool of water in 

 a gully imder the Liverpool range. 



According to the Australian Museum " Descriptive Catalogue,'' 

 Dr. Ramsay, on the 29th December, 1871. took two eggs on the Mary 

 River. Queensland, which were probably the specimens referred to in 

 the P.Z.S. (1875), but for which no dimensions were furnished. 



A nest of the Yellow-eared Honeyeater, taken near Melbourne, in 

 a musk-tree in the Dandenongs, is large, and composed of beautiful green 

 moss interlaced with strips of brownish-coloured bark, and lined inside 

 with a thick ply of the whitish cotton-like substance evidently gathered 

 from the underside of the leaves of the blanket-wood (Senecio). 

 Dimensions — outward, 4 to 5 inches across by 4 inches deep ; inside, 2i 

 to 3 inches across by 2 inches deep. Near the same locality, after a 

 picnic party had departed, I and some other persons were entertained by 

 one of these fine Honeyeaters, which descended close by and ate with a 

 relish some particles of preserved fruit that were left. 



Breeding months, September to December or January. 



