146 MELIPHAGID.E. 



country on Kangaroo Island, but it probably occurs commonly right up to Kingscote. This was 

 interesting to me, as with the exception of one occasion, I have never seen this species in South 

 Australia before, although I have heard that it is found in the Blount Gambier District."' 



Mr. G. A. Keartland also writes me as follows: — "During the journey of the Calvert 

 Exploring Expedition, I frequently heard the loud notes oi Ptilotis Icucotis in the Acacias which 

 clothe the sandhills near Lake Augusta, in Western Australia. The birds were, however, very 

 wary, and owing to the fact that we were travelling as fast as possible, I only shot one, the skin 

 of which was left with the abandoned collection at Johanna Springs." 



In the neighbourhood of Sydney, although widely distributed the White-eared Honey-eater 

 is the rarest species of the genus Ptilotis. It frequents the tea-tree and needle-bush scrubs about 

 Parramatta River and Cook's River, and the large open tracts with a stunted vegetation about 

 Middle Harbour, and is generally met with in isolated pairs. Except in the breeding season it 

 is usually shy and wary, and especially in those situations where it cannot be approached 

 unobserved. It is more numerous on the Blue Mountains, and in the thickly timbered portions 

 of the Illawarra District. Mr. E. H. Lane has found it breeding on several occasions in the 

 open forest country at Wambangalang Station near Dubbo, and there are several specimens in 

 the Australian Museum collected by the late ^Ir. K. H. Bennett, at Moolah, and in different 

 parts of South-western New South Wales. In Mctoria I met with it in the ranges around 

 Ballarat, also in the scrubby undergrowth on the shores of Port Phillip and Western Port Bays, 

 where I found it breeding. 



In spring it has a loud and distinct call resemblmg " chur-ruk, chur-ruk, chur-ruk, do-it- 

 well, do-it-well," which when frequenting open situations, may be heard a considerable distance 

 away. In autumn and winter, the first portion only is frequently repeated, and this is sometimes 

 abbreviated to a short-sounding "choor, choor." 



The stomachs of specimens examined contained the remains of insects, principally beetles. 

 It is also destructive to cultivated fruits, and at Roseville I have seen this species shot with 

 others, while attacking the summer fruits. 



The nest is a deep cup-shaped structure, irregularly formed externally of strips of bark, 

 bark fibre, and egg-bags of spiders, matted together with spiders' webs, the inside being lined 

 with cow or horse-hair, opossum or rabbit fur, according to the situation in which it is built. In 

 some nests obtained by Mr. E. H. Lane, on Wambangalang Station, wool was also used 

 in their outer construction. A nest received from Frankston, Victoria, was more neatly made 

 than usual, being externally formed of thin strips of greyish-white bark, matted together with 

 cobwebs and egg-bags of spiders, and lined inside with horse-hair. It was through watching 

 one of these birds, during a stay at Frankston in September i8S8, plucking the hair from the 

 backs of a pair of ponies in my sister's paddock, that I discovered their nest in a Melaleuca scrub 

 close by, the completed nest and set of eggs being sent me later on. An average nest measures 

 externally three inches and a half in diameter by two inches in depth ; the inner cup measuring 

 two inches and a quarter in diameter by two inches in depth. It is usually built between several 

 thin upright branches or a fork, the bark of the sides of the nest being worked around the stems, 

 at a height varying from three to eight feet from the ground, although at Cabramatta I have 

 seen a nest as high as eighteen feet. In the neighbourhood of Sydney it is generally constructed 

 in a tea-tree or needle bush. A nest in the Australian Museum Group Collection, built in 

 a Hahea acicularis was found, when in company with Mr. Arthur Muddle, at Enfield, on the 

 ist September, 1895, containing two slightly incubated eggs, which the female was reluctant 

 to leave until I had almost placed my hand upon her. A week later we found the same pair 

 of birds building close by in another bush, but it was abandoned before completion. 



