74 MELlPHAGlD.i;. 



Although the breeding season in the neighbourhood of Sydney extends over the greater 

 portion of the year, fresh eggs may be usually looked for, about Middle Harbour and Manly, 

 when the first of the Native Roses (Boronia scrrulata) are in flower and perfuming the heath and 

 scrub lands this species frequents. On the 5th August, igoo, I saw two birds engaged in lining 

 a nest built on the ground, sheltered slightly by the drooping leaves of a Grass-tree, and from 

 which six days later I took two fresh eggs. On the same day I found a nest in an exposed 

 situation in some stunted herbage, the female remaining sitting until I was quite close to her. 

 On flushing her I discovered a young one just hatched and a chipped egg. Two young birds 

 left the nest as I approached it on the igth August, the female, feigning a broken wing, and 

 tumbling over and over, while the young ones concealed themselves in the undergrowth. 

 I found another nest on the ist September, igoo, built in a low bush close to a well 

 frequented path and the female sitting on two fresh eggs. In company with ;\Ir. C. G. Johnston 

 at Middle Harbour, four nests were found on the 3rd September, 1S99, one contained a broken 

 egg, another two heavily incubated and recently deserted eggs, another two dead young ones, 

 and the fourth two young just hatched. The latter left the nest on my approaching it on the 

 30th September, I caught them and after examining them restored them to their parents. The 

 easiest way to find the nests of this species is to walk quietly over their breeding haunts and 

 flush the birds, for when once disturbed, they often fly some distance, and seldom return 

 while an intruder remains in sight. The normal breeding season commences at the latter end 

 of July and continues until the end of December, but nests may also be occasionally found 

 throughout the first six months of the year. ^^Ir. .\. F. B. Hull showed me a nest and two 

 fresh eggs of this species he had taken at Freshwater, on the 22nd March, 1901. The nest 

 was built in a low dead bracken fern near the roadside. Another nest he found on the igth 

 October, 1903, contained three fresh eggs. On the 13th April, 1906, in the same locality, Mr. 

 Hull procured another nest with two fresh eggs. 



Mr. W. L. Moore brought me a nest and egg of the Fulvous-fronted Honey-eater - for 

 examination he had taken on the 3rd November, 1900, at Loftus, on the lUawarra Railway 

 Line, and also in the same nest an egg of the Pallid Cuckoo. This set I exhibited at a 

 meeting of the Linnean Society of New South Wales in June lyoj. 



Glycyphila albifrons. 



\V H [ I'E-FEONTED HONEY-EATER. 

 Glycypldla alhifrom, Gould, Proo. Zool. Soc, 1S40, p. 160; /</., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. IV., pi. 29 



(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 497 (18G.5); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 



IX., p. 211 (1884). 

 Adult male — General colour above dark brown, the feathers on the hind neck and back having 

 whitish margins; rump rufous-brown with dark brown centres to the feathers; upper tail-coverts 

 brown, slightly tinged tvith rufous and broadly centred with dark broivn; upper iving-coverts brown, 

 the tips of the median and the outer webs of the greater series ivith broad whitish margins ; quills dark 

 brown margined externally with yellowish-green, except the inner secondaries which are externally 

 margined and narrotvly edged at the tip with white; tail feathers dark brown, edged on their outer 

 webs, except on the outermost one on either side, with yelloivish-green ; crorvn of lite head blackish-brown 

 with very narrow whitish tips; forehead, a broad loral streak and a line extending from immediately 

 beneath the louver mandible to the ear-coverts, ivhite; a narrow line of feathers below and behind and 

 partially encircling the eye white, succeeded by a broader one of black, tvhich reaches to the gape; ear- 

 coverts blackish-silver-grey, behind which is a patch of white feathers ; cliin and throat blackish-broivn 

 passing into a more decided brown on the fore neck, some of the feathers on the centre of the throat 



