FTILOTIS. 117 



Uttered from the tops of lofty pines. Later on I heard tlie notes of this species in the shrubs 

 on the sand-hills at Henley Beach near Adelaide. 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, wrote as follows while resident at Mossgiel, New South Wales: — 

 "Ptilotis sanora is without doubt the most common Honey-eater of this part of the country, being 

 equally numerous in the clumps of timber and sand-hills dotted over the plains. Its food besides 

 nectar of flowers and insects, consists largely of the berries of various plants. As Gould remarks, 

 the structure of the nest varies in different situations, usually they are round, cup-shaped and 

 somewhat scanty structures of dried wiry grasses matted and held together with spiders' webs, 

 and lined inside with fibrous roots. The site chosen for the nest is amongst the thick twigs of 

 some scrubby bush or small tree. The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting and the 

 breeding season here is in September and October." 



Mr. Edwin Ashby sent me two specimens for examination and wrote me: — '■' Ptilotis sonora 

 does not occur in the ranges near Adelaide but is very common in the coastal sand-hills within 

 six miles of the city. The female is one I obtained at Siberia Soak, a locality about sixty miles 

 to the north of Coolgardie, Western Australia." 



From Port Augusta, Dr. A. Chenery sends me the following note : — "Ptilotis sonora is 

 common here all the year round. 1 have also seen it exerywhere in the interior where 1 have 

 been. It eats insects as do other Honey-eaters, and builds in myalls or sandal-wood, also 

 sometimes in orchards." 



Mr. G. .\. Keartland writes me: — "Few birds are found in such varied country as the 

 Singing Honey-eater, Ptilotis sonora. They are equally at home amongst the shrubs on the sea- 

 coast of South Australia and Victoria, in the Casuarina ridges of the Werribee Plains, between 

 Melbourne and Geelong, the sand dunes at Geraldton, Western Australia, the sand-hills of 

 portions of the Great Desert in North-western Australia, and the mulga scrubs and open forests 

 of Central Australia. Wherever found they were generally seen singly or in pairs. While 

 crossing the Great Sandy Desert of North-western Australia in September, i8g6, I found several 

 of their nests, but in most of them only one partly incubated egg was found in each. Near Derby 

 in May, I'Sgj, I shot as many birds as 1 wanted, by sitting near one of the many trees that were 

 then in full bloom. Why this bird is called the Singing Honey-eater 1 cannot tell, 1 never heard 

 it utter more than a few notes." 



Mr. J. Gabriel sends me the following note: — "In company with Mr. G. A. Keartland a 

 nest was found ol Ptilotis sonora on the Werribee Plains, Victoria, on the 23rd October, 1893, 

 with three fresh eggs. The cup-shaped nest of grasses and wool was placed in the drooping 

 needle-like leaves of an outlying branch of a Casnariua not more than seven feet from the ground. 

 Unfortunately two of the eggs were drawn out of the nest by the bird when flushed and the eggs 

 broken. .\ fortnight later we found another nest with three fresh eggs, under almost the same 

 conditions. We found a third nest in the following season, but although I have many times 

 since visited the plains, I have never seen any of these birds." 



Dr. A. M. Morgan who accompanied Dr. A.. Chenery in July and August 1900, on a trip 

 from Port Augusta to the Mount Gunson District, South Australia, writes me: — "Ptilotis sonora 

 was very common, and seems to be an irregular breeder, as we found a nest building on the 

 30th July, 1900, another about completed on the 3rd August, and one on the same day contained 

 half-grown young ones. Another on the loth August built in the mistletoe of a myall growing in 

 tne bed of a creek, with two heavily incubated eggs. I saw another in Gibson's camp with 

 incubated eggs in it, which the owner said had been taken six weeks before, and. another nest at 

 Port Augusta contained a sterile egg and one in an advanced stage of incubation. It was built 

 in the top of a large salt-bush growing in a creek. 1 have met with Ptilotis sonora from Henley 

 Beach in the south to Mount Gunson in the north, and Yardea in the west, and found its eggs, 



