MYZOMRLA. 



93 



adult male, being heard and seen on the nth November. They became common in December 

 and January but did not breed, the following year they appeared on the ist September and were 

 very numerous, starting to breed shortly after their arrival. At the latter end of October, they 

 suddenly left Roseville and the contiguous portion of Middle Harbour, abandoning even their 

 fled'^elint's, several of which I saw in different parts of the bush and one I caught on the 31st 

 October. Probably their departure was due to the high winds which prevailed for several days 

 just at that time. They were not observed again that season in the neighbourhood, which they 

 usually leave about the middle of T'ebruary. 



Except during the breeding season Blood-birds resort chiefly to the taller Eucalypti: when 

 the latter are in flower it is a beautiful sight to see the adult males feeding among the white 

 blossom. The stomachs of many specimens examined contained only the remains of small 

 insects. 



It is difficult to convey by words any idea of the succession of remarkably sweet and clear 

 notes of the male, which may be heard a considerable distance away. In early spring he utters 

 one of the liveliest strains, and it is just as animated when poured forth during the midday heat 

 of summer when most other species are silent. Once heard it cannot be mistaken for that of any 

 other bird. The notes of the female are somewhat different and they are less prolonged than 

 in the male. 



The nest is a small open cup-shaped structure formed of very fine strips of bark or bark- 

 tibre with a slight addition of cobwebs, the inside being slightly lined with finer material, and in 

 some with fine wiry fibrous rootlets. Most of the nests I have found were outwardly constructed 

 with red stringy-bark fibre, and they were so frail that when tiiey contained eggs, the latter were 

 visible when standing beneath the nest. They are attached at the rim to a thin horizontal fork 

 of a tree, often where another thin stem crosses the others forming a triangle, the nest thus 

 being securely fastened at the rim by cobweb in three places. An average nest measures 

 externally two inches in diameter by one inch and a half in depth, the inner cup measuring 

 one inch and a half in diameter by one inch and a (luarter in depth. The trees most favoured 

 as nesting sites in the neighbourhood of Sydney are Turpentine-trees, tea-trees, and gum 

 saplings. Some are built in the terminal leafy branchlets, others near the main stem, or a thick 

 branch, at a height varying from three to twenty feet from the ground. 



The eggs are almost invariably two, rarely three in number for a sitting, oval or rounded- 

 oval in form, the shell being close grained, smooth and lustreless. The ground colour varies 

 from faint buffy-white to almost a pure white, which is distinctly spotted and blotched with 

 yellowish-brown, and faint purplish, or reddish-brown, the markings predominating, and in 

 some specimens entirely confined to the larger end, where they not infrequently form a more or 

 less well defined zone. A set of two taken at Glenfield, Richmond River, on the 7th November, 

 1888, measure:— Length (A) 0-65 x 0-48 inches; (B) 0-62 x 0-47 inches. A set of two taken 

 at Roseville, on the 13th October, 1902, measure: —Length (A) 0-62 x 0-49 inches; (B) 0-63 x 

 0-49 inches. A set of three taken in the Bloomfield River District, North-eastern Queensland, 

 measure:— Length (A) 0-63 x 0-48 inches; (B) 0-62 x 0-46 inches; (0)0-65 x 0-45 inches. The 

 latter specimen is almost pure white sparingly and very minutely dotted with pale purplish-red. 

 Young males resemble the adult female, but have the rump and upper tail-coverts ochreous- 

 fulvous, the scarlet- feathers first appearing about the chin and sides of the head and down the 

 centre of the back, the black feathers on the sides of the latter appearing about the same time. 

 When the entire head and neck all round is scarlet, there is only indications of the scarlet tips 

 to the feathers of the fore neck and breast. In the Australian Museum collection are males in 

 all stages of plumage, from the young in modest garb to the gorgeously plumaged adult male 

 with its predominant rich scarlet and black livery. 



