4^^ A£srs AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 

 371. 1'aKU^U.OTUS I'UiNCTATUS, Sliaw. — (81) 



SPOTTED PAllDALOTE (DIAMOND BIKD). 



Figure. — Gould : Birds o£ Australia, fol., vol. ii., pi. 35. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. x., p. 58. 



Previous DescripHoru of Eggs. — Gould: Birds of Australia (if)4!)); 

 also Handbook, vol. 1., p. 158 (1865) ; Ramsay : Ibis, p. 2-ji 

 (i868) ; North : .Vustn. Mus. Cat., p. 49 (1889) ; Campbell : 

 Geelong Naturalist, vol. iv., p. 58 (1S95). 



Geuijruiiliual Didrihutwii. — Queensland, New South Wales, Victori.i, 

 South and West AusUaha, and Tasmania, including some of the 

 islands in Bass Strait. 



Seat. — Spherical in shape, outwardly about four or five incites in 

 diameter by two-and-a-half inches inside, with a small side entiance, 

 constructed of soft strips and shi'eds of the inner bark of eucalypts, 

 and lined inside with finer shreds of the same material, and sometimes 

 with grass and feathers, and situated imderground in a bank, or in the 

 side of any convenient hole in the forest. The birds first drive a small 

 tunnel from a foot to tlu'ee feet in length iu a slightly upward direction, 

 and then excavate a chamber to accommodate the nest. Occasionally 

 the nest is in an old log. 



Eyys. — Clutch, four, sometimes five ; somewliat round in shape ; 

 texture of shell very fine ; colour, pure wliite, with a slightly glossy 

 surface. Dimensions in inches of a full set taken near Oakleigli. 

 30th October, 1886 : (1) -66 x -52. (2) -U x -51, (3; -el x -51, (4) -63 x -52. 



Obaervutions. — The Spotted Pardalote, sometimes called Diamond 

 Bird, with its pretty, neat, little figure, is the most famiUar of its kind 

 to us. The bird is distributed generally over Australia from east to 

 west, and from Tasmania in the south to Rockingham Bay district in 

 Northern Queensland. 



The plumage of the Spotted Pardalote is so variegated and beautiful 

 as to render a precise description in words difficult. Upper smiace 

 black and grey, with large spots of white near the tip of each feather ; 

 under parts of a tawny appearance, except the throat, chest, and under- 

 tail coverts, which are yellow ; upper tail coverts crimson ; bill blackish, 

 and eyes brown. Total length, only Sg inches. 



The wonderfully WTOught imderground nests of the Spotted 

 Pardalote, with the entrance to the tunnel frequently artfully liiddeu 

 by overhanging vegetation, roots, &c., I have found in eastern forested 

 parts as well as under tlie shade of the beautiful-leafed eucalypts of 

 the west. I have also found them in the loose friable sand in an 

 abrupt bank near the sea shore, sucli as at Western Port. Victoria, 

 where the birds were burrowing in numbers in October, 1880. A nest 

 I found in a West Australian forest was only eight or nine inches in 

 the ground, with a chamber 3i inches in diameter. 



