MYZOMELA. 



99 



Mr. Charles McLennan writes me: — "On Pine Plains Station, in North-western Victoria, 

 I found two nests of Myzomcla ni<ira. Both were built in dry upright forks of Native Hop bushes 

 about three feet from the ground, and each contained two eggs." 



The nest is a small open cup-shaped structure, some being formed throughout of dead 

 greyish-white grass stems with an admixture of cobwebs, and slightly lined with fine rootlets 

 or grasses. The nest figured is in the Group Collection of the Australian Museum, and was 

 presented by Mr. A. Zietz. It is built at the junction of several partially cone-covered blackened 

 stems of a Casunriua, and is a compact thick-walled structure, the angle of the fork below being 



filled up with nesting material. Out- 

 wardly it is formed of thin dried plant 

 stems, grasses, and rootlets, held 

 together with cobweb, which is loosely 

 worked around two of the upright 

 branches; the inside is scantily lined 

 with fine brown rootlets. It averages 

 externally two inches and three- 

 quarters in diameter by a depth of 

 two and a quarter inches, the inner 

 cup measuring one inch and three- 

 quarters in diameter by one inch in 

 depth. It contained two eggs, although 

 only one is visible in the accompany- 

 ing figure. The nests of this species 

 differ from those of M. saitguinolenta 

 in being usually built between an 

 upright or on the top of a horizontal 

 fork, not suspended by the rim, and 

 is placed in most exposed situations. 



The eggs are two in number for 

 a sitting, oval in form, the shell being 

 close grained, smooth and slightly 

 lustrous. They vary in ground colour 

 from a dull creamy-white to a light creamy-brown, and are conspicuously zoned around the 

 larger end with a band of confluent dull olive-brown spots and dots; in some specimens, rather 

 near the middle of the egg. Typically the markings are blurred and indistinct, and are restricted 

 to the zone. In others no markings are visible, only a darker clouded cap or band. A set of 

 two in the Australian Museum collection measures: — Length (A) o-6 x 0-47 inches; (B) o-6 x 

 0*48 inches. Another set measures: — Length (A) o'65 x 0-47 inches; (B) o-66 x 0-48 inches. 



From the preceding notes it may be gathered that August and the four following months 

 constitute the usual breeding season of this species. 



The young female resembles the adult, but has the upper wing-coverts dull rufous, the fore- 

 head and crown of the head rufous, the hind neck ashy-brown, the sides of the head, ear-coverts 

 and upper throat dull rufous, the lower throat and fore neck dull white washed with rufous and 

 the feathers more distinctly centred with blackish-brown. 



NEST AND EGG OF THE BLACK HONEY-EATER. 



