.VESTS AND hOGS Ol' AVSTRAUA.V BIKUS. 



407 



and possibly including New South Wales adjacent to the Rivur Muiray, 

 or the Murray belts where Gould procui-ed his types. 



I first met this graceful bird in the season of 1880, among a forest 

 of saplings neaa- Bagshot, Bendigo, where one or two nests were found 

 suspended in a pai-asitical creeper (Vossytha), supported by small trees- — 

 a voiy secuix> situation for a small nest. But the most beautifully 



situated nost 1 ever foimd of this species, and one well worthy of such 

 a pretty bird, was in the mallec counti-y, suspended in a low acacia bush, 

 adorned with its golden store of " wee furry balls." 



Again, !25th November, 1889, I met this Honeyeater in Western 

 Australia, on the coast at Woodman Point, about eight miles from 

 Fremantle. There, in a splendid shining clump of eucalypts, the species 

 of which I did not learn, a boy pointed out to me a nest suspended in a 

 swaying branch. The late Mr. Roby Woods, in whoso company I was, 

 drove the buggy imderncath. Standing upon the seat, I easily secured 

 the nest, which contained one egg, while the pretty birds protested 

 fearlessly, showing to perfection their graceful figures and lengthened 

 yellow plumes upon their necks. I also noticed the same kind of bird 

 Hitting about the gum-trees in the town of Fremantle, where it seemed 

 quite at home — as much so as its White-plumed compeer does in the 

 gardens about Melbourne. 



Breeding months, August or September to December. 



341. — Ptilotis plumula, Gould. — (315) 



YELLOW-FRONTED HONEYEATER. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol, iv., pi 40. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. ix., p 245 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia (1S48) ; also 



Handbook, vol i , p. 516 (1865); Diggles : Companion Gould's 



Handbook (1877). 



Geoi/rti plural Distribution. — Northern Territoi-y, North (probably) 

 and South Queensland, South and West Australia. 



Nfst. — Cup-shaped, small, elegant ; formed of dried gra.sses, lined 

 with soft cotton-Uke buds of flowers and suspended from a slender branch, 

 frequently so close to the gi'ound as to be reached by hand (Gould). 



E(/rjs. — Clutch, two (and probably three); salmon colour, with a zone 

 of a deeper tint at the larger end, and the whole freckled with minute 

 spots of a still darker hue ; ten lines (83 inch) long by seven lines 

 (-58 inch) broad (Gould). 



Observations. — The range of the Yellow-fronted Honeyeater extends 

 more northerly than its close ally the Yellow-plumed, both in east and 

 West Australia. I do not recollect seeing the bird in Victoria. All 

 the specimens collected by Gilbert were from the York district, in 



