ALSrS AXV £CCS at AUSI kalian tilKDH. 4j7 



of odd examples from North-west AusUalia ; (1) 1-13 x -75, (li) 1-1 x -77, 

 (3) lot) X -74, (4) 108 X -75. llcscmble those of the Yellow-thioatcd 

 Friai- liiid. 



Observafiiins. — This northern Friar Bii'd is vci-y similar to tlie Yellow- 

 tliroated, the more southern and interior species, but is smaller in all 

 its nieitsurements except the bill, which is l;u-ger. In the neighbour- 

 liootl of the Fitzroy River, North-west Australia, Mr. G. A. Keartland 

 observed many of the nests of this Friar Bird, but only two eggs were 

 obtained. The nests were usually made of eoiuse grass, cup-shaped, 

 and were placed in the droopnig foliage of a euealypt. 



Dr. liiimsay gives the habitat as far south as the Dawson River 

 district, and described tlie nest and eggs from the collection of the 

 Messi-s. Bainard of that locality, who, however, are not aware that that 

 pai'ticular species is found in their neighbourhood. 



Mr. A. J. North, in the "List of Birds" collected by the Calvert 

 Expedition (Trans. Roy. Soc., S.A., vol. xxii., p. 150), fui'nishes some 

 excellent critical remarks on this and the-preceding species. Further 

 evidence has proved that Dr. Ramsay's 7-*. ua-idftiialin is t. surdklux 

 in immatm'c plumage. 



BrcecUng season, Octobei' to February or later. 



FAMILY— DIC^TD^ ; FLOWER PECKERS. 



367. DlC.-EUM HIRUNDINACEUM, tjluiW. (358) 



FLOWER PECKER or MISTLETOE BIRD. 



[•igurc. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii., pi. 34. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. x., p. 19. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Ramsay ; Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S. 



Wales, 2nd ser., vol. 1., p. loyj (1SS6); North: Austn. Mus. 



Cat., p. zib (18S9). 



Gtotjrapliica/ Distrihulion. — Whole of Austraha. 



Xe^t. — Pear-shaped, with a lateral slit-like entrance ; soft and elastic 

 to the touch ; composed entirely of spiders' cocoons (sometimes white 

 in colour, sometimes greenish), coated with brownish downy seeds and 

 the dark excreta of wood-eating insects. iVnother example is soft and 

 fclt-likc, and constructed throughout of a downy vegetable substance 

 of a l)ro\.nisli colour ; round the entrance hang globules of insect excreta ; 

 usually suspended to a twig or branchlet of a wattle (Acacia), euealypt, 

 bursaria bush, &c., at a distance vai-ying from three feet to twenty feet 

 from the ground. Dimensions : length 3 inches, greatest breadth 

 2 to 2^ inches, entrance 1 to 1| inches long by i to ^ inch across. 



-Clutch, three, occasionally four; lengthened in form, 

 or oval ; texture exceedingly fine ; surface slightly glossy ; colour, 



