162 



MELIPHAGID.«. 



principally apricots and plums, are sometimes eaten by it in the summer months, and these 

 birds are a nuisance some seasons in vineyards. 



Dr. A. Chenery writes me from Port Augusta, South Australia: — Acanthocluri'a carunculata 

 is not common here. A few pairs may be found in the gums on some of the creeks of Flinders 

 Range and in the mallee belts along Spsncer's Gulf. I have only found two nests; one of them 

 on the 2nd October, 1899." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes: — "Anfhochani carunculata is found throughout the greater part 

 of Victoria, but it is more numerous in the Ironbark forests. In Western Australia it is confined 

 principally to the coast line; during the journey of the Calvert Exploring Expedition in 1896-7, 

 this species was met with as far north as Mullawa." 



The nest is a round open structure very irregularly formed externally of thin twigs, and 

 lined inside with fibrous rootlets and pliant plant stems, and more often at the bottom with strips 

 or shreds of bark. On the Blue Mountains the dried spiny stems of the Blackthorn are often 

 used in its outer construction. Nests examined, taken m South Australia, were lined at the 

 bottom with a small quantity of wool ; another one had a few feathers intermingled with the 

 wool. One in the Australian Museum collection taken by Mr. Richard Grant at Lithgow, 

 averages externally seven inches and a half in diameter by three inches and three quarters in 

 depth, the inner cup measuring four inches in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth. 

 The nest is usually built in an upright fork oi a. Eucalyptus, Banksia or other suitable tree. In Albert 

 Park near Melbourne, I found them at a height varying from fifteen to forty feet from the ground, 

 but around the shores of Western Port Bay, where they were common, they were nearly all 

 built in gum saplings, several within hand's reach, and none higher than fifteen feet. In other 

 situations, where they are seldom interfered with, as on the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, 

 they are generally built within ten or twelve feet from the ground. Every symptom of alarm is 

 exhibited by this species when one approaches close to its nest, running with outspread wings 

 here and there over the ground or boldly dashing at an intruder and uttering harsh grating cries 

 of distress. It is somewhat remarkable that these birds breed very freely close to the sea in 

 Victoria, yet they retire from the coastal districts of New South \\'ales to breed further inland. 



The eggs are two, sometimes three in number for a sitting, oval or elongate oval in form, the 

 shell being close-grained, smooth and more or less lustrous. They vary in ground colour from 

 a rich flesh or pale reddish-bufi" to a pale salmon-red, which is freckled and spotted with different 

 shades of chestnut or purplish-red, intermingled with fewer and fainter underlying markings of 

 dull violet-grey. As a rule the markings are of irregular shape and sometimes assume the form of 

 short streaks and lines and usually predominate on the thicker end. On others they are rounded 

 and often they have one or more spots or small blotches of yellowish-brown. A set of two taken 

 by Mr. Robert Grant, on the loth October, 1896, at Lithgow on the Blue Mountains, measures: 

 Length (A) 1-26 x 0-89 inches; (B) 1-27 xo-88 inches. A set of two taken by Mr. Richard Grant 

 in the same locality on the 14th December, 1892, measures: — Length (A) 1-32 x 079 inches; (B) 

 1-32 X 079 inches. Another set was taken on the 7th January, 1897. An unusually elongated 

 egg taken by Dr. E. P. Ramsay, at Manar, near Goulburn, New South Wales, measures : — 

 Length 1-42 x 0-87 inches. 



The breeding season commences in August and continues until the end of January. In 

 New South Wales, nests with fresh eggs are more frequently found in September and October, 

 and again at the latter end of November and December, showing that this species breeds at least 

 twice during the season. Mr. Robert Grant informs me that these birds breed in large numbers 

 around Lithgow, and that on one occasion he and his brother counted six of their nests in one 

 wide spreading tree, but he was unable to say whether they were all tenanted or not. At \\'estern 

 Port, Victoria, nests with fresh or slightly incubated eggs were common in the early part of 

 November, 1S84. 



