170 



MELIPHAfilD^. 



The nest is a large open cup-shaped structure, attached by the rim to a thin forked 

 horizontal branch, which is usually entirely hidden by the nesting materials being well worked 

 over it. Outwardly long narrow strips of red stringy-bark firmly woven together are more often 

 used, with which dried grasses are intermingled, the inside being lined with the latter material. 

 Others are built chiefly of wool and strips of bark, but lined inside with wiry plant stems or dried 

 grasses. In addition to the two preceding types there is a nest in the Australian Museum 

 collection, externally formed of broad pieces of tea-tree bark, bound round with strips of red 

 stringy-bark, string, spider's webs, and bearded lichens, but lined with fine yellow dried grasses. 

 An average nest measures externally six inches and a half in diameter by four inches and a half in 

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

 The nest is nearly always built at the extremity of one of the outermost branches of a gum tree, 

 and usually well out of danger of being interfered with. At Narrabri and on the Upper Clarence 

 I have seen them over fifty feet from the ground, but at Cooma and in the mountainous districts 

 in the south-eastern portion of New South Wales I have been informed they are sometimes 

 built almost within hand's reach, as also does Oriolus sagittiitiis. another species whose nests 

 are usually placed well out of harm's way. 



The eggs usually three, sometimes four in number for a sitting, \ary considerably in 

 shape and disposition of markings. Typically they are oval or elongate-oval in form, the 

 shell being closed grained, smooth and lustreless, and of a reddish-salmon ground colour, 

 spotted and blotched with light chestnut-red and pale violet-grey; in some the markings are 

 very distinct, and predominate chiefly on the thicker end, in others they are of a slightly darker 

 shade than the ground colour. Others have the ground colour of a very pale salmon, sprinkled 

 over with almost obsolete spots and blotches of faint chestnut and violet-grey. An unusual set 

 of four in the Australian Museum collection, taken by Mr. S. Robinson at Lewis Ponds, New 

 South Wales, on the 3rd November, 1896, are of a very faint creamy-pink ground colour, with 

 spots and dots of pale purplish-red uniformly distributed over the shell, and intermingled with 

 similar underlying markings of dull violet-grey: — Length (A) 1-23 x 0-87 inches; (B) 1-21 x 

 0-87 inches; (C) 1-25 x o-88 inches; (D) 1-25 x 0-85 inches. A set of three measures: — (A) 

 1-37 X 0-9 inches; (Bj 1-44 x 0-92 inches; (C) 1-38 x 0-92 inches. A remarkably small and 

 rounded set of two taken by Mr. John Ramsay at Cardington, in December, 1867, measures: — 

 Length (A) i-ii x 0-9 inches; (1!) 1-14 x o-88 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but have a much smaller protuberance on tiie upper 

 mandible ; many of the feathers on the upper parts are brown and are broadly margined with 

 white at the tip, the feathers also extend right on to the nape, those on the latter part, as well as 

 those above the eye, chin, and margin of the throat, are rich brown, those on the fore neck are 

 shorter, less lanceolate in form and tipped with pale yellow ; remainder of the under surface dull 

 white, those on the sides of the body being long, downy, and washed with pale brown. ^Ving 

 6 inches. 



A male, evidently immature, obtained by Mr. J. A. Thorpe, at Tarana, is of a distinctly 

 greyer shade in the back, wings, and tail. This specimen is in the moult, some of the tail 

 feathers being only half grown, tiie upper tail-coverts have white margins, the tips of the 

 secondaries ha\-e narrow brown edges, and some of the tips of the primaries are white ; there is 

 a larger amount of white on the under surface, the sides of the breast being greyish-brown, tipped 

 with white. Wing 6-2 inches. 



In the neighbourhood of Sydney and in the Hawkesbury River District this species 

 commences to build early in October, and fresh eggs were taken at Liverpool, on the 14th 

 December, 1896. In the previous month of that year I found nests at Narrabri on which the 

 birds were sitting, and in the Clarence River District Mr. Savidge informs me that the breeding 

 season commences early in October, and continues until the end of January. Mr. 11. G. Barnard 



