CKIITIIIONVX. 



91 



appeared in great numbers one season and were never seen by him again. These eggs are oval 

 in form, smooth shelled and lustrous, of a beautiful greenish-blue ground colour, and have 

 irregular shaped spots and blotches of rich red on the larger end, intermingled with very faint 

 yellowish-red patches on one specimen which also has the predominant markings much larger 

 and darker. Both eggs are unlike those of any Honey-eater or other Australian bird. Length 

 (A) 0-82 X 0-6 inches; (B) 0-82 x 0-62 inches. In his notes made in the Mossgiel District, prior 

 to his taking properly authenticated eggs oi Ccrthionyx varugatns, Mr. Bennett wrote as follows: — 

 "I have never been able to satisfy myself as to the nidification of the Pied Honey-eater, but a 

 nest I found in the scrubby country to the north of this place a few years ago I believed to belong 

 to this species. The nest was an e\ceeedingly neat and beautiful structure, much resembling 

 that of Saulopi'octii wotniilloidts, but smaller, and placed on a forked horizontal branch about 

 three feet from the ground; it contained two eggs of a blue ground colour. Having caught only 

 a glimpse of the bird as it left the nest, and never having seen any eggs like them previously, I 

 withdrew and watched for some considerable time, but the bird did not return, and as I had many 

 miles to travel before reaching home, I reluctantly took the eggs." It has been suggested that 

 the eggs are those of the Pied Robin, but it is hardly likely that Mr. Bennett with his quarter of 

 a century experience of this common species which is found in the district could make a mistake 

 of this kind, and he always maintained that they belonged to an undescribed species. Having the 

 specimens before me I can state most emphatically that they are not the eggs of the Pied Robin, 

 and for the purpose of distinguishing them, in the Australian Museum collection, I have labelled 

 them as the eggs of " Bennett's Honey-eater." 



The eggs of the present species are usually three, sometimes only two, and rarely four 

 for a sitting. They vary from oval to rounded and elongate oval, the shell being close grained, 

 smooth and usually lustreless, but one set now before me has a slight gloss. Typically the 

 ground colour is either dull white, dull greyish-white or faint creamy-white, over which is 

 evenly distributed freckles and spots of blackish-brown, with which are intermingled similar 

 underlying markings of dull bluish-grey, particularly towards the larger end. In some specimens 

 the markings are rounded in form; in others of irregular shape especially the underlying ones 

 which in rare instances form small confluent irregular shaped patches. There is an unusual set 

 of three in the Australian Museum collection taken by Mr. C. G. Gibson, in August 1903, at 

 Lake Austin, Western Australia, two have the ground colour dull white, the other yellowish- 

 brown, the dots and spots on the former being blackish-brown and dull bluish-grey, while on 

 the latter specimen they are umber-brown and very faint bluish-grey. Length (A) O'g x o'Sy 

 inches; (B) o-88 x 0-67 inches; (C) 0-83 x 0-7 inches. A set of three taken at Island Creek 

 Lagoon, one hundred and thirty miles north-west of Port Augusta, South Australia, measures : — 

 Length (A) 0-93 x 0-65 inches; (B) 0-92 x 0-65 inches; (C) 0-93 x 0-64 inches. A set taken 

 by Mr. C. E. Cowle, at Illamurta, Central Australia, and also one by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, 

 in Western New South Wales, are slightly smaller in their measurements. The eggs of this 

 species resemble some varieties of those of the Dusky Wood-Swallow, Artainiis sovdidus. 



There is a young male in the Australian Museum Collection procured by Mr. K. H. 

 Bennett and labelled "Lachlan River, New South Wales, rare, loth January, 18S1, bill brown, 

 base of under mandible and the gape yellow; legs and feet bluish; iris brown; sex male." It is 

 indistinguishable from the adult female, except in having the feathers on the fore neck and upper 

 breast more distinctly centred with brownish-black. Wing 3-1 inches. 



