154 ]\1ELIPHAC.ID.E. 



as high as thirty feet in the Sandal-wood trees. At Louth, Western New South Wales, Mr. 

 Edward Lord Ramsay found nests with fresh eggs in September and October 1889, built in 

 mulgas and ironwoods at an average height of fourteen feet. In the Dubbo District Mr. E. H. 

 Lane informs me that he found three eggs to constitute the usual sitting, and only in one instance 

 did he find four. 



The eggs are usually three or four in number for a sitting, elongate-oval in form although 

 thick ovals are sometimes found, the shell being close grained, smooth, and lustreless, or nearly 

 so. Tiiey are of a dull white ground colour, which may be thickly freckled, spotted, or minutely 

 blotched with pale chestnut-red, intermingled with underlying fainter markings of lilac-grey. 

 Some specimens have the markings uniformly distributed over the shell, in others they 

 predominate or are confined entirely to the larger end, where they sometimes form a cap or zone, 

 and some are almost devoid of markings. The latter on a set now before me, consist of 

 numerous but almost invisible pepperings or dustings of Hght chestnut-red and dull lilac-grey, 

 and are confined entirely to well defined bands on the larger ends. A set of four in the Australian 

 Museum collection, taken on the 17th November, 1886, by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, at 

 I vanhoe, New South Wales, measures: — Length (A) o-86 x 0-67 inches; (6)0-87 ^ o-68 inches; 

 (C) 0-87 X 0'68 inches; (D) 0-97 x 0-67 inches; the latter a typical sized elongate-oval specimen, 

 is almost devoid of markings. Another set of four taken by Mr. Bennett on the i8th October, 

 1889, on Yandenbah Station, measures: — Length (.\) o-g7 x 0-69 inches; (B) 0-95 x 0-7 

 inches; (C) 0-95 x 0-69 inches; (D) 0*98 x 0-7 inches. 



A nestling in the Australian Museum collection has the general colour above fulvous-brown 

 with brownish-black centres to the feathers, those on the nape, hind neck, and sides of the neck 

 having whitish margins; upper wing-coverts and quills dark brown, broadly margined with 

 fulvous at the tips; tail feathers fulvous with brown centres; all the under surface white, with 

 narrow brown shaft streaks on some of the feathers on the breast, ^^'ing 2*4 inches. Attached 

 to this specimen is the following note by the Lite Mr. K. H. Bennett: — "Taken from the nest on 

 the 2nd January, 1885, at Mossgiel, New South Wales. Unusually late; young leave the nest 

 as a rule in November." 



Young birds in the collection obtained by me at West Narrabri on the gth November, 1896, 

 resemble the adults, but the feathers on the under surface are more downy and not so lanceolate 

 in form on the fore neck. Wing 4 inches. 



September and four following months constitute the usual breeding season of this species. 



Meliphaga phrygia. 



WARTY-FACED HONEY-EATER. 

 Merops phrygius, Lath. Ind. Orn., Suppl., p. xxxiv (1801). 

 Xanthomyza phryia, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol.. Vol. IV., pi. 48 (1848). 



Meliphaga phrygia, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. L, p. ~r27 (186.3); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. IX., p. 221 (1884). 

 Adult male — General colour above black, the feathers of the back, rump, and upper (ail-coverts 

 broadly margined with pale yello>v or yellowish-white, and of a slightly ch-arer wJiite on the rump; upper 

 loiug-coverls black, the median and greater series margined on their apical portion with yelloivish-ivhite : 

 primary coverts yellow; quills black, their apical portion externally margiued with yellow, the second, 

 third, fourth, fifth, and sixth primary with the apical portion of their outer webs entirely yellow, as 



