98 



MliLIPHAGID.E. 



tree scrubs of Central and North-western Australia. It is rather shy, and builds a small cup- 

 shaped nest which is generally placed in a dry fork of a low bush. Whilst the Calvert Exploring 

 E.\pedition was crossing the Great Desert in North-western Australia in 1S96, Mr. C. F. Wells 

 found a nest on the 2nd October, containing one egg, which was precisely similar to others since 

 received by me from Mr. C. E. Cowie of Central Australia. During the following December, 

 single birds used to come to drink at the water trough of the Fitzroy River Telegraph Station." 



From Western Australia, Mr. C.G. Gibson, writes me as follows:— "On the ist September 

 1902, at Lake Austin, I found a nest of Myzomela nigra, it was a frail cup-shaped structure, 

 composed of dead grasses, and was placed in a horizontal fork of a dead mulga bush. It con- 

 tained a recently hatched young one. On the 2nd September, I found another nest with two 

 young ones, considerably larger and stronger than the one I found the preceding day. It was 

 built in a horizontal fork in an exposed branch of a mulga bush close to the ground. I nearly 

 walked on this nest as it was a very windy day, and the female sat so close that I had to lift her 

 off by the tail. The Black Honey-eater, as far as I have seen is nowhere plentiful, only isolated 

 pairs being found throughout the whole of the Murchison District. On the nth September, 

 1905, I found a nest of Myzomela nigra fifty miles to the north-east of Laverton. It was built in 

 the slanting fork of a small dead mulga, eighteen inches from the ground, and contained two eggs 

 much incubated. On the following day I found another on the horizontal stem of a dead mulga 

 two feet six inches from the ground, containing two fresh eggs. It was a large well made nest, 

 — the photograph I send you of it shows the very exposed situation in which these birds build — 

 there are no other limbs above, below, or on either side, the one limb is practically the tree. 

 Two more nests were found partially built the same day, both in horizontal forks of dead mulgas, 

 one containing two eggs on the i6th September, the other one. On the 8th October I found a 

 very small nest in the horizontal fork of a dead mulga, with two much incubated eggs ; the 

 cock bird was sitting on the nest. I found another on the following day, in the same position, 

 containing two recently hatched young ones, also a large well made nest, the sides formed of 

 dead daisy stems, built on the horizontal fork of a dead mulga with two chipped eggs." 



Mr. Edwin Ashby sends me the following notes from South Australia: — "Myzomela nigra 

 occurred in great numbers in a thick she-oak scrub close to Mount Barker in the Mount Lofty 

 Range near Adelaide, in December 1888. They had evidently been nesting freely, as many pairs 

 were busy feeding their young. I do not think that this species again visited the neighbourhood 

 of Adelaide until ten years later, during the spring and early summer of 1898, when they were 

 nesting in suitable localities throughout the Mount Lofty Range." 



Mr. A. Zietz, the Assistant Director of the South Australian Museum, found Myzomela nigra 

 breeding near Adelaide in 1898, and again in 1902. With a nest of this species he presented to 

 the Trustees of the Australian Museum, he sent me the following note: — "Myzomela nigra appears 

 very irregularly in the neighbourhood of Adelaide. Once they bred two years in succession, but 

 many years elapsed before they bred here again. They are generally found in low scrub at the 

 foot of the Mount Lofty Range. The note of this species somewhat resembles that oi Pardalotns 

 xanthopygius, but unlike that species it is only a single, instead of a double note. The nests 

 are built from two feet and a half to about four feet from the ground. They prefer to nest in the 

 blackened stems of a small species of Casuarina, which have been killed by bush fires ; other nests 

 may be found in small green Banksias, or on the top of some low shrub. Although the nests are 

 built in exposed situations they are somewhat difficult to detect when the female is sitting, for 

 they closely resemble their surroundings. At first you hear the whistle of the male near where 

 the female is sitting, but when you approach he flies a short distance away and perches on some 

 dead branch where he can watch you. The female cautiously glides off the nest and remains 

 quiet in some shrub." 



