438 NESTS AND EGGS Ot AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



piu-u wliiLc. Uimeiisiojis of ;i cluLch m paiU of ;m lucli : (ij 06 x -44, 

 Cl) (iS X -43, (3) -64 x -42. 



Obnervatiom. — Wherever iu Australia the Loranthus bui'deus tlie 

 trues — whether the red-gums ( Eucaly^lusJ in the east, or the jam- wood 

 ( Acaciu) in the west — there will sui-ely, at some time of the year, be 

 found that endearing httle bii'd, the Swallow Dicaum or so-called Flower 

 Pecker. No Dic«um is fomid iu iasmania, probably for the reason 

 that no mistletoe growths exist there. 



On the Coutineut the bii-d is more plentiful thau one supposes, its 

 tiny body, no doubt, escaping general observation. The total length 

 is only 3A inches. When the httle shapely creatme, in lustrous blue- 

 black coat, sti-ikingly reheved with a scarlet throat, breast, and under 

 tail coverts, is threading the slender golden green branches of the 

 mistletoe, you have a contrast lu coiotuing which it would be difficult to 

 excel for beauty in the whole realm of natui-e. The female Dicajum 

 has a duller colomed di-ess than the male, and can at ouce be distingmsheU 

 by her bufly-browu throat and breast, where the male has scarlet. 



I have shot the bird in Northern Queensland, seen it feasting on the 

 glutinous globules of the mistletoe on the silver wattles that fringe the 

 l\luiTay, and obsei-ved it at home m my own garden feeding upon the 

 red berries of the pepper-tree (SclnnusJ, dui-iug winter. The loranthus 

 berries, excepting the outside casing, are devoured whole, and in passing 

 through the bird the seed remains uninjured. While thioading the 

 mistletoe clusters the male bird frequently pauses awhile to utter a 

 twittering song, singing mwaidly as if to himself. The soimd is quite 

 chlfercnt to the bird's high-pitched call-note. 



Gould states he found the Dicaeum breeding on the Lower Namoi, 

 New South Wales, and describes its pensile nest ; but his examples of 

 eggs must have become mixed, when he mentions that the dull white 

 eggs have " very minute spots of brown scattered over the siu^face,' 

 because my experience, and the experience of every collector with whom 

 I am acquainted, is " that the eggs ai'e uaifurmly white." 



According to the " Catalogue " of the Australian Museum, Sydney, 

 one of its collectors, Mr. J. A. Thorpe, found the Swallow Dic;euni 

 bi'eeding at Cape York, 1866-7, and obtained both nests and eggs. The 

 interesting information is also stated that Dr. Hurst obtained a nest 

 on the Parramatta River, near Sydney, that took six weeks from the 

 time the nest was commenced till it was completed, and the full com- 

 plement of three eggs laid therein. 



I have received the tiny bag-hke nests of the Flower Pecker, not only 

 from Queensland but also from different parts of Victoria, notably the 

 Wirrunera and Camberwell, near Melbourne, where a nest was found 

 suspended to a branchlet of a black wattle (Acacia). (See illustration 

 of similar instance), while I found in the romantic Wenibee Gorge, 

 imder interesting circumstances, a nest containing three eggs, on the 

 Prince of Wales' birthday, 9th November, 1895. In coimection with 

 a pliotogi-apliic club camp-out we were pitching tent«, when luv attention 

 was first drawn to a Flower Pecker, with exceedingly bright scarlet 

 throat and under tail coverts that perched on a naked twig close by. 



