66 JIELIPHAGID.E. 



shallow rock pool. They simply darted oft" a branch into the water and out again as quickly as 

 possible. ISoth near Canterbury and at Roseville, I have seen these birds, on rare occasions, 

 during the hot summer months in lofty Eucalypti around my house. 



It utters a clear double whistling note, which may be easily distinguished from the shrill 

 call of its compeer, McUovuis uovic-hoUandiie. It is often uttered rapidly for several times in 

 succession, and more particularly when it mounts up with a zig-zag flight for some distance in 

 the air. 



Stomachs of these birds e.xamined contained the remains of insects, principally small black 

 beetles ; its food also consists of the pollen and nectar of flowers. 



The nest is a cup-shaped structure, roughly formed externally of strips of bark, wiry plant- 

 stems and grasses, and often has a flat platform around the rim of varying width, the inside of 

 the nest bemg lined with dried grasses or when procurable the thread-like leaves of Casiiarina 

 suherosa, and at the bottom with the downy tufts of Banksia cones, silky grass-seeds, small dead 

 flowers, or other soft material. An average nest measures externally four inches and a quarter 

 in diameter, by two inches and a half in depth, and the inner cup one inch and three-quarters in 

 diameter by one inch and a half in depth. They are usually well concealed and built near the 

 ground, sometimes resting on it at the bottom of a clump of Sword-grass or fern, or among the 

 lower thin dead twigs of a tea-tree or gum saplmg, and partially concealed with standing dead 

 grass-stalks. More often they are placed in thick upright forks of shrubs within three or four 

 feet of the ground, and occasionally in a tea-tree at an altitude of fully twenty feet. 



As a rule the nests of this species are built in positions that are furthermore sheltered above 

 with a canopy of leaves and branches of trees of a considerably taller growth. An exception 

 was a nest I found at Middle Harbour on the 5th August, igoo, while looking for those of 

 Glycyphila ftilvifrons. Out on a heath-land and well away from any high timber, I was 

 surprised to flush a White-cheeked Honey-eater from some Dwarf Apple-trees ( Angophora 

 cordifoUa) and found its nest built in the fork of one of these trees about two feet from the 

 ground ; it contained two fresh eggs. 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, elongate oval in form, the shell being close- 

 grained, smooth, and almost lustreless. They vary in ground colour from a pale yellowish to a 

 faint reddish-buff freckled and spotted with reddish-chestnut or chestnut-brown, the markings 

 usually being sparingly but uniformly distributed over the shell ; in others they predominate or 

 are almost confined to the larger end where they sometimes assume the form of a zone. A set 

 of two taken at Middle Harbour, on the 5th August, 1900, measures: — Length (A) 078 x 0-58 

 inches; (B) 077 x 0-58 inches. A set of two taken at Roseville, on the gth October, 1898, 

 measures: — Length (A) 0-83 x o-6 inches; (6)0-82 x o-6i inches. Typically the eggs of this 

 species may be distinguished from those of Meliornis novcB-hoUandicB, by being more elongate, of a 

 slightly richer ground colour, and less conspicuously marked. 



Young birds have the upper parts brown, some of the feathers on the centre of the back 

 blackish-brown with faint yellowish-white margins, the wings and tail resemble those of the 

 adult, but the outer webs of the greater series of the upper wing-coverts show traces of indistinct 

 yellowish margins; crown of the head brown, forehead blackish-brown : sides of the head black, 

 the superciliary stripe being much narrower than in the adult and of a faint yellowish-white; 

 the sides of the forehead, chin and throat dusky-brown; remainder of the under surface dull 

 white, washed with brown on the sides of the lower breast and abdomen, most of the feathers 

 being centred with blackish-brown, more broadly on the upper breast ; bill blackish-brown, basal 

 half of lower mandible yellowish-brown. Wing 27 inches. 



Like its ally M. nova-hollandice, this species has two distinct breeding seasons in the year. 

 In the neighbourhood of Sydney the autumn breeders commence to build at the end of March, 



