NESTS ,i,\V liGGS 01< AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



443 



of iifjiiu^ ill Tasmania (its true homo) is any otiicr colour lliau yellow. 

 while, I tliiuk, in Western Australia, the extreme western lialjilat of 

 ornatus, he will find uo yellow specula, but all red. 



370. — P.\IU).\I.OTlS AFFINIS, Gould. — (85) 



YELLOW-TIPI'ED TAllDALOTE. 



Figiin. — GouUl : Birds of Australia, lol., vol. ii., pi. jg. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit, ilus., vol. x., p. 57. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould: Birds of Australia (1848); 



also Handbook, vol. i., p. 164 (1865); North: Austn. iMus. 



Cat., p. 51 (1889); Campbell: Geelong Naturalist, vol. iv., 



p. 56 (189s). 



Geuijraphical Distribution. — Sotith Queensland, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, South Australia, iuid Tasmania (including some of the Bass 

 Strait islands). 



y'fut. — Constructed of gr;isses, strips of bark and feather,, usually 

 built within a hole of a tree, sometimes near the ground, at other times 

 at a considerable iieiglit. Occasionally the nest is placed underground 

 in a bank. 



Egys. — Clutch, three to five, usually four Somewhat round or 

 roundish oval in shape ; tcxtiu'o of shell line ; pure wliite, with glossy 

 surface. Dimensions in inches, large example, '77 x '58 ; small example, 

 •6 X 'SG. Set in Mr. E. D. Atkinson's collection (Tasmania) : 

 (1) -77 X -58, (2) -77 x -58, (3) -77 x -57. 



Observations. — This is the Tasmanian and southern fonii of the Red- 

 tipped Pardalote, the Orange-tipped variety of New South Wales and 

 Queensland being an intermediate species. 



The " AlUed " Pardalote, as it is nondescriptly called, may be 

 distinguished from the Red-tipped species, which it much resembles, by 

 having the tips of the spimous wings yellow instead of red, hence the 

 more n|)propriatc and distinguishing tcnns. " Yellow-tipped ' and 

 " Red-tipped." 



Tlie duration of the breeding season applies alike to the two species. 

 Gould, on reference to his journal, says: — "I find that near George 

 Town, on the 8th of January, 1839, I took from a nest in a hole of 

 a tree, five fully-fledged young. The nest in this instance was of a 

 large size, and of a round domed form like that of the Wren (European), 

 with a small hole for an entrance ; it was outwardly composed of grasses 

 and warmly lined with feathers." 



Although the Yellow-tipped Pardalote usually resorts to timber for 

 breeding, it appears to be addicted to terrestrial quarters sometimes, 

 for, according to a correspondent, Mr. Arthur E. Brent, the nests are 

 found " both in trees and in the banks of sand on the shores of the 

 Derwent, where the birds abomid in numbers during the breeding 

 season." 



