118 meliphagid;e. 



commonly two in number, but three is not unusual, in every month from July to January. The 

 nest has always, in my experience, been built in a thick bush very well concealed and only once 

 have I seen it out of reach of the hand." 



In 1905 at Laverton, Western Australia, Mr. Chas. G. Gibson, informs me that he found 

 six nests. Two each on the 28th and 31st July, and two on the 6th and nth August. They 

 were built in mulga or low bushes at a height varying from four to five feet from the ground. 

 Five of the nests each contained two fresh eggs, the other, two eggs slightly incubated. 



A nest taken on the 19th October, 1899, by Dr. A. M. Morgan at Henley Beach, near 

 Adelaide, is externally \ery irregularly formed of dried plant stems and grasses, thickly matted 

 together \\ ith the web and egg-bags of spiders, the inside being lined with very fine fibrous roots 

 and horse-hair, through which is interwoven bits of cotton and soft fibrous string. External 

 average measurement four inches, depth three inches ; internal diameter two inches and a quarter, 

 depth one inch and a half. It was built about five feet from the ground, in the hanging branches 

 of a Banhsia, one side of the nest being attached to a thm stem and partially resting on a cone, 

 and the other to the stem of a climbing plant. 



The eggs are two or three in number, oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth 

 and more or less lustrous. In ground colour they vary from faint fleshy-white to a light yellowish 

 or a reddish-buff, and generally have a zone or cap of a darker shade of the ground colour on 

 the larger end, where occasionally are a few small spots of a still deeper hue. A set in the 

 Australian Museum collection, taken in 1898, by Dr. \V. A. Angove, between Dry Creek and 

 Salisbury, South Australia, measures as follows: — Length (A) o-Sj x o-6i inches; (B) 0-87 x 

 0-6 inches; (C) o-8g x o-6i inches. A set of two taken by Mr. Edward Lord Ramsay on the 

 gth October, 1899, at Wilgaroon, Western New South Wales, vary in colour, one being of a 

 yellowish -buff ground colour with a cap of reddish-buff, the other is almost pure white with 

 a broad penumbral band of rich reddish-buff on the larger end, a faint shade of this colour 

 spreading over the top of the thicker end. Length (A) 0-95 x o-6 inches; (B) i x 0-62 inches. 

 These eggs, which were nearly hatched, were taken from a cup-shaped nest built of pieces of a 

 thin green vine, in an Emu-bush, at a height of six feet from the ground. A set of three taken 

 by Dr. A. M. Morgan on the 19th October, 1899, are lighter in colour than average specimens 

 being of a very delicate flesh colour with an almost imperceptible darker shade on the larger 

 end of the shell. These eggs could easily be mistaken for those of a variety of the Yellow-tufted 

 Honey-eater, or small eggs of the Pallid Cuckoo. They measure: — Length (A) 0-9 x 0-65 inches; 

 (B) 0-91 X 0-66 inches; (C) 0-92 x o-66 inches. 



July and the h\e following months constitutes the usual breeding season of this species, but 

 in Central Australia, Mr. C. E. Cowle has obtained fresh eggs in March. 



Ptilotis versicolor. 



VAKIED HOXEY-EATER. 

 Ptilotis versicolor, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 136; id., Bds. Aust, fol.. Vol. IV., pi. 34 (1848); 

 id., Haudbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. .500 (186.5); Salvad., Orn. Pap, et Molucc. Pt. II,, p, 

 344 (1884); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. iMus,, Vol, IX,, p, 234 (1884); North, Vict. Nat,, Vol. 

 XXL, p. 167 (1905); id., Rec, Austr, Mus., Vol. VI,, p 29 (190.5), 



Adult male — General colour abov dull yt;l!oivi>:fi-oliri' : »io,s< of llip. finthrrs 011 the hack having 

 dark brown centres ; ivinys broirn irashed with yellowinh-olive, wliic/i is briyh/est on the oiiler webs oj 

 the outermost primaries ; tail feathers brotvn, washed ivith olive-yell ou; more distinctly on the 011 ter 

 ire.bs; crown of tlte head like the back, passing into a f/reyish-hroirn on the forehead : lores, feathers 



