MELIPHAGID^. 



Mr. Masters informs me that he found this species frequenting the same situations near the 

 coast as does its congener in Eastern Australia, and that it is precisely similar in habits. 



A nest of this species in the Australian Museum collection, taken by Mr. Tom Carter, on 

 the 6th July, 1906, at Broome Hill, Western Australia, is remarkably small in comparison 

 with that of the Eastern species A. mellivora. It is an open saucer-shaped structure externally 

 formed of very thin many branched plant stems, with which are intermingled a few twigs, 

 the inside being lined with iine dried grasses, and at the bottom with shreds of bark, and 

 on top of that a layer of Zamia wool. Externally it averages four inches in diameter by one 

 inch and three-quarters in depth; internally it measures two inches and a half in diameter by 

 one inch and a quarter in depth. Mr. Carter informs me that it was built in a White Gum 

 sapling at a height of fifteen feet from the ground, and contained a single fresh egg, the usual 

 number laid for a sitting. 



The egg taken from the above described nest is an elongate oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. It is of a reddish-buff ground colour, which is 

 uniformly spotted and blotched with chestnut-red, intermingled with similar underlying markings 

 of purplish-red and a few faint spots of purplish-grey. Length i-i6 x o'8 inches. 



As will be seen by Mr. G. Savidge's notes the eastern species AncUohia mcUivova sometimes 

 lays but one egg. 



O-en-U-S 1'ISOr=I3DOISXI"52'3>TC:E3:'US, Vifpn:, and Hor^Jiehl 



Tropidorhynchus corniculatus. 



PRIAE-BIED. 

 Merops corniculatus. Lath., Iiul. Orn., Vol. I., p. 276 (1790). 

 Tropidorhynchus corniculatus, Gould, Btls. Aust., fol., Vol. IV., pi. 58 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. 



Austr., Vol. I., p. 54.5 (186.5), 

 Philemon corniculatus, Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 271 (1884). 



Adult male — General colour aboce pale greyish-brown, of a sliyhtly clearer brown on the mantle; 

 tviuffs and tail of a darker shade of greyish-brown, the latter tipped with white, the inner webs of the 

 quills brown; head bare, except a few hair-like feathers at the base of a knob-like protuberance at the 

 base of the upper mandible and a broken line of dark brown feathers extending in front of the eye, 

 absve which is a narrow line of short pale broivn feathers; chin and throat dull ivhite, all the feathers 

 tvith narrow dark shaft lines: the feathers on the fore neck and chest lanceolate in form and of a 

 silvery-white tvith a narrow dark brown shaft stripe, those on the fore neck being separated from the 

 lower throat by a band of dusky-broton feathers ; on the cheeks and occiput are some fine black hairs; 

 breast pale brown passing into dull white on the centre of the abdomen and tinder tail-coverts; bill 

 and bare skin of head dull black: legs and feet dark grey; iris red. Total length in tlte flesh l.J-2') 

 inches, wing (1:.', tail .IS, bill from base of fore portion of knob-like protuberance o?i the upper mandible 

 to tip I'l, tarsus 1'2'>. 



Adult female — .Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution— Queensland. New South Wales, \'ictoria, South Australia. 



r-j^HK Friar-bird, or as it is more commonly called the " Leatherhead," was one of the birds 



-L first known to the early settlers in Australia, and is figured in \\'hite's "Journal of a 



\'oyage to New South Wales," as the "Knob-fronted Bee-eater," from specimens collected near 



