^fESTS AXV EGGS OF AUSTKALIAN liiKDS. 



44' 



edges of most of the fcAthcrs luargmod with white ; over tlie nose is 

 a yellowisli-oraiige stripe, wliile the tips of the spmious wiugs are red, 

 licuce the veriiaeular uame. 



The fiict that tlie Red-tipped Pardalote oceasionally breeds under- 

 ground was clearly proved by ^Ir. C. F. Beleher, who found a nest 

 containing foiu' oggs in a bank of a creek at Pollock's Ford, nead' 

 Geelong, on the 11th November, 1896. A bird eajstmed in the nest 

 was kindly sent to me for identification. 



Dr. W. Macgillivray, writing to me from Coleraine, Victoria, says : 

 " The Striated (or Red-tipped) P.irdalotc is vei-y numerous here. 

 I have found several of tiieii- nests, all during la.-it mouth (November). 

 They seem to nest in comp;iny, several nests being generally withui a 

 few yards of one another, cither in the ground or in a tree. The nests 

 have a very compact base, but are not roofed to the same extent as 

 those of P. afjinu and P. punctatus. One nest that I found liad no 

 roof at all. Another nest was constructed mainly of pine needles, 

 which must have been gathered at a plantation fully a quarter-of-a-mile 

 away." 



In some valuable Queensland notes that Mr. Heniiaun Lau waa 

 induced to compile for me, under the heading of " Striped Diamond 

 Bird," he says: — "Early in spring, when you are going along an 

 embankment, you are greeted by short ' chuck-chuck ' notes. Upon 

 looking round, a sweet, stumpy-tailed bird hops lively from bough to 

 bough almost within youi- gi-asp. By so doing it betrays its nest, 

 which you will be sure to find either in the bank or in a small hole 

 of a lying log. The tunnel in the bank has a depth of from two to 

 three feet. At the end will bo found the nest, prepared of grass and 

 well feathered, disclosing foiu- white eggs. 



" My workroom at Yandilla had, in one of the slabs, an auger-hole 

 an inch in diameter, once used for a peg to hang up a saddle. Through 

 this hole the httle chap often used to come, and veiy pleasant it was 

 for me while working to hear its yoimg chicks, when being fed, 

 cliirping between the canvas and the slabs. On one occasion, in 

 August, 1877, I foiuid a nest with foiu- young in a hole fifteen feet 

 up in a living eucalypt." 



Whether Mr. Lau's descriptive remarks refer to this or another 

 Pardalote, I had personal proof of the Red-tipped Pardalote, which is 

 usually a builder in trees, breeding in a bank of a creek in the Sandhurst 

 district, Victoria, but whether the bird drilled the burrow itself, I could 

 not ascertain. 



However, it would appear that the Red-tipped Pardalote does 

 buiTow for itself, a« in the Austi-alian Museum CaUlogue (North) the 

 following remarks occur : " In the paddocks (\\'attagoona Station, near 

 Louth), Mr. E. L. Ramsay obtained then- nest from the sites usually 

 chosen by this bird, the hollow limbs of trees, and on several occasions 

 found them breeding in company with Chenniirem Ifiinixtt-rniiin in a 

 hole in the side of a bank of a creek ; they prefer, however, tc tmanci 

 a hole where the earth is harder than the site usually chosen by the 

 White-breasted Swallow for its nest. When resorting to the bank of 

 a creek. Mr. Ramsay informs me the nest is cup-shaped, with a short 



