ACAN'TlIOIillYNCIIUS. 



103 



a Mclnliiii-n. On the 3rcl of yanuary, iSyi, at Aslilield, I saw a bird building its nest in a most 

 unusual position. It was among the thin rigid leaves in the topmost branches of an acclimatised 

 Pine (Finns iiisignisj, and fully thirty feet from the ground. Only by seeing the bird repeatedly 

 carrying nesting material was it discovered, and at that height and the thickness of the foliage it 

 was difficult to distinguish from some of the cones. Mr. K. H. Bennett climbed to this nest on 

 the 22nd January following, when it contained two incubated eggs. 



On the ist September, 1906, at Roseville I saw a nest built in a tea-tree overrun with climbing 

 plants, containing two fresh eggs, another one being built on the 20th instant in a Pittosporum 

 undulatum, and two days later I saw Mr. R. Meikle climb and obtain two fresh eggs from a nest 

 built in the terminal leafy branches of a stringy-bark fifty feet from the ground ; a most unusual 

 site, and one that had I not seen the eggs and one of the birds procured belonging to it, could 

 hardly have credited it belonged to this species. 



The nest figured, which contained 

 two fresh eggs, was taken at Roseville, 

 on the 24th October, 1905. It is a cup- 

 shaped structure externally formed of 

 thin strips of bark slightly held together 

 with cobwebs the inside being lined with 

 finer dried grasses and fowl's feathers, 

 the ends of several of the latter curling 

 over and partially concealing the inner 

 portion of the structure. It is attached 

 by the rim to three thin leafy stems of a 

 Turpentine tree, and was about ten feet 

 from the ground. Externally it averages 

 three inches in diameter by two inches 

 and a quarter in depth, the inner cup 

 measuring two inches in diameter by 

 one inch and a half in depth. 



On the 3rd January, 1897, Mr. S. 

 W. Moore found a nest at Wentworth 

 Falls on the Blue Mountains, with two 

 fresh eggs, and one in the same locality on the 14th January of the previous year, with two much 

 incubated eggs. At -Eastwood Mr. Moore also found a nest containing one egg and one young 

 one, on the 21st January, 1893. Mr. Frank Hislop found several nests at Lithgow on the 

 Blue Mountains during the latter part of 1899. They were nearly all built in gum saplings 

 on the sides of creeks. Two nests only were taken; one contained a set of two fresh eggs on 

 the 24th September, the other on the 21st October, a set of three fresh eggs. Two eggs of the 

 latter set had the ground colour rich buff, in the other it was almost pure white, the larger end 

 being washed with buff; all were spotted with dull chestnut-brown. 



The breeding season of this species usually commences in August and continues until the 

 end of January, or early in February, during which time two or more broods are reared. 



NEST OF THE SPIXE-UILLEn HONEY- EATER 



