76 MELIPHAGID/E. 



found them on the top of a bunch of dead Porcupine grass. Two eggs are laid for a sitting. 

 The breeding season usually commences in August and continues until the end of November, 

 but in wet seasons it begins earlier." 



Two nests received from Mr. Charles French, Junr., taken by Mr. C. McLennan on 

 Pine Plains Station in the Wimmera District, Victoria, in September, igo2, are cup-shaped 

 structures formed principally of soft dead greyish-white blades of grass with which are intermingled 

 externally some spider's web and cocoons and a few small feathers ; one is lined entirely with 

 sheep's wool, in which is worked in and out a long piece of soft white cotton ; the other is scantily 

 lined at the bottom with some downy white seeds. They are alike in size and measure externally 

 three inches in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth, the inner cup measuring barely 

 two inches in diameter by one inch and a half in depth. 



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

 smooth, and slightly lustrous. They vary from a very faint reddish-buff to a buffy-white ground 

 colour, which is distinctly spotted, but particularly on the larger end, with different shades of 

 reddish-chestnut, intermingled with similar underlying markings of dull purplish-red or purplish- 

 grey. Some specimens iiave large irregular-shaped blotches or smears of faint chestnut or 

 chestnut-brown ; in others the markings are penumbra), or have small darker and richer coloured 

 spots overlying the fainter subsurface markings. Typically they may be easily distinguished 

 from those of the preceding species by their richer ground colour and markings. A set taken 

 by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, in October, iS86, at Ivanhoe, New South Wales, measures: — 

 Length (A) 0-78 x 0-57 inches; (B) o'S2 x 0'52 inches. Another set of two measures: — 

 Length (A) 0"78 x 0-57 inches; (B) 0-78 x 0-55 inches. A set in Dr. A. AL Morgan's collection 

 taken near Laura, about one hundred and forty miles north of Adelaide measures: — Length (A) 

 o'79 X o'57 inches; (B) o'S x 0'57 inches. 



Young birds are brown above, wings brown, some of the greater coverts and the secondaries 

 margined with whity-brown on their outer webs; tail feathers brown with paler brown margins; 

 head, ear-coverts, and sides of the neck brown; chin and upper throat dull white, passing into 

 fulvous-brown on the fore neck, where together with some of tiie feathers on the upper breast 

 are dark brown except on their margins; remainder of the under surface dull white slightly 

 washed with fulvous-brown; under tail-coverts dull white centred with blackish-brown; "bill 

 brown the under mandible yellow at the base; legs and feet bluish-grey, iris brown." (Bennett). 



Glycyphila fasciata. 



FASCIATED HONEY-EATER. 

 Glyciplnla fasciata, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 137; id., Bds. Austr., fol., V'ol. IV ., pi. .30 



(1848); id., Il^ndbk. Hds. Aust. Vol. I , p, 499 (1865). 

 Glycyphila fasciata, Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus Vol. IX,, p l!12 (1884). 



Adult tAA.l.^—( i>'i,>nil ,■„!,, „,■ <:!,„rr hrmr,, slhjhtlii tni,,rd with hiif „n the rump <i,<d iipp,r tall- 

 coverts; mantleandhiirl.<l„rl:hri<>n, with dl-d<jl „<'d l„if;i-l,ro,r,i ,„„r;ih,.-, t„ luiLst uffhr f,„tli,rs : Ir^srr 

 upper wing-eoverfs ti!;i- tli, hm-k, Imt /rith umrh iiitrminr and pidi r mii nji us, iiirdhiii mid i/rnitrr 

 covet-ts and qiidlx hrna-ii ,,rt<rii<dlii iiiiiniiurd und t'liipnl, ixnpt tin- luitrnitiist jirimai irs, ir'ith irhdij- 

 hroxvn; tail fathns l,roa„. Harmirhi rdijrd ndh nhd ij-Urm, „ : f.nhntd «>id m.ii h >f th, h,,al 

 Uackish-hrmvn, eachfuthn- ,nin;<i,-}ij „iin;/i,ird with ,rhd, „t th< tip: si.l, s <,/th.hr,„l ,1 ud r„i-r,,n rts 

 faint huffy-white, i„is.-.\ ,„, lu pun ,rhit,n„ thr r.i.tr.' uf thr thr„„t : a ,„in;„r t.rnirtilsh-hhirh //»,- 

 extends fnmi thr has,- nflh-- hum- i,iai,<rd,lr d.,in, ,,i,-h s'uhnf thr thmut: rruudnid.,- .f th<- inidn- 

 surface white, each feather on the fore neck and sides if the chest harimj a subtenuimd hluckishdiriuvn 



