70 



MELIPHAfllD,?:. 



Other birds from the nest, the constant Sparrow, the occasional White-eye. Once I saw the hen 

 humbly and vainly try to dislodge a quite unconcerned Sparrow, the next moment the Sparrow 

 was fleeing for his life fiercely pursued by the male Honey-eater." 



Mr. E. D. Atkinson also sends me the following note from Tasmania: — "My brother, the 

 Rev. H. D. Atkinson, found a nest of Lichmera nustrahisiaiin at Circular Head, on the 3rd 

 December, 1889, containing two eggs, and another at Evandale on the 29th September, 1S96, 

 with three eggs. Each nest was built in a tea-tree." 



Foran opportunity 

 of giving a representa- 

 tion of a haunt of the 

 Horse-shoe Honey- 

 eater I am indebted to 

 Messrs. Kerry and Co., 

 Sydney, who kindly 

 presented to the Trus- 

 tees of the Australian 

 Museum a photograph 

 of the gorge at the 

 \'alley of Waters, 

 for the purpose of 

 reproducing the accom- 

 panying plate. The 

 \'alley of Waters is 

 situated at Wentworth 

 Falls on the Blue 

 Mountains, sixty -one 

 miles west of Sydney 

 and two thousand eight 

 hundred and forty-four 

 feet abo\'e the le\el of 

 the sea. 



The nest is a thick 

 walled open cup-shaped 

 structure and varies in 

 the materials used for 

 its construction. It is 

 generally irregularly 

 formed externally of 

 thin strips and scales 

 of bark, dead leaves 



and dried grasses slightly held together with spiders' web and plant down, the inner cup 

 being neatly lined at the bottom with hair or fur, with which one or two feathers are sometimes 

 intermingled. Others have no binding material, either of spiders' web or plant down, but 

 are formed throughout of strips and scales of bark, dead leaves and dried grasses, and have a 

 slight lining only of finer dead grasses and very fine fibrous rootlets. Of the latter type is a nest 

 in the Australian Museum collection taken by Mr. S. W. Moore, at the Valley of Waters, 

 Wentworth Falls, on the 23rd January, 1897. It was built in a clump of ferns, and contained 

 an addled egg. Another nest in the Group Collection, taken by the late Mr. Henry Grant at 

 Lithgow, has a large piece of paper worked into the outer portion of one side. An average nest 



A HAUNT OF THE HOESESIIOE IIOXRV-EATER. 



