64 



MELIPHAGID.E. 



A set of two taken on the ist October, 1868, measures: — Length (A) 077 x 0-57 inches; (B) 

 0-8 X 0-58 inches. A set of two taken by Mr. C. G. Gibson at Broad Arrow in September 1902, 

 are of a rich yellowish-buff ground colour spotted and blotched on the larger end with chestnut 

 and reddish-brown, and are sparingly marked with the same colours over the remainder of the 

 shell. Length (.\) 0-79 x o'6i inches; (B) o'82 x 0-63 inches. 



Jilr. C. G. Gibson writes me from \\'estern Australia : — " I found a number of nests of the 

 Long-billed Honey-eater at Broad Arrow during September 1902. They were built from 

 two to five feet from the ground and in several instances on the upright fork of a sandal-wood 



tree. The eggs were usually 

 two, but occasionally three for a 

 sitting. The birds all sat very 

 close, but when once disturbed 

 from the nest were extremely 

 shy. A nest I found on the 3rd 

 September 1903, at Lake Austin, 

 built in a low bush, contained 

 three half-grown young." 



Mr. Gibson has since for- 

 warded me his nesting notes for 

 1905, in which he records finding 

 in the vicinity of the Mount 

 Margaret Goldheld, Erlistown 

 District, on various dates between 

 the 2ist June and the 13th of 

 September, thirty-six nests of 

 this species. Some were in 

 course of construction, most of 

 the nests contained two eggs, 

 only one set of three being found, 

 the remainder contained young. 

 The nests were built generally in 

 the upright forks of low bushes 

 principally mulga and salt-bush, 

 at a height varying from eighteen 

 inches to three feet from the 

 ground, but one found on the 

 I 2th September, containing two 

 incubated eggs, was built in the 

 vertical fork of a dead mulga at a height of eight feet. Of unusual sites, one found on the 21st 

 July was in the top of a hollow stump two feet from the ground and contained a recently broken 

 egg. On the 13th September another was found behind a loose piece of bark of a dead mulga, 

 eighteen inches from the ground, containing two young. 



JNIr. Tom Carter writes me from South-western Australia.:— " MeHoniis longirostris is very 

 numerous about Albany. A nest with two fresh eggs was noted at the Quarantine Station there 

 on the 14th February, 1905." Mr. Carter also forwarded to the Trustees of the Australian 

 Museum, a nest and set of two eggs taken by him at Broome Hill, on the 5th July, 1906. 



July and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season, but doubtless 

 like Meliornis novcB-hollandice, it breeds freely again in the autumn, odd nests being found 

 throughout the remaining months of the year. 



NEST AND E0i(iS OF IIIE LUNG-IULLED IIUNEV- ICATEU 



