MELITIIREPTUS. 185 



at Wide Bay, South-eastern CJueensland is 2'88 inches. The winj^-measurenient of adult males 

 received in the flesh, and obtained by Mr. George Savidge at Copnianhurst, in September, 1905, 

 are the same. 



Relative to this species in the Bloomfield River District, North-eastern Queensland, Mr. 

 Frank Hislop writes me as follows: — " Mclithreptiis nlbigitlnris \s only found in the open forest 

 land, and although the birds are common, their nests are very difficult to discover. They 

 generally build in Blackbutt or Bloodwood-trees, about fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. 

 The nest is made chiefly of tea-tree bark and cobwebs, and it is suspended at the rim to a thin 

 fork at the end of a branch. Two eggs are the most I have e\er found in a nest." 



A nest of this species in the Australian Museum collection, taken by Mr. George Savidge, 

 on the 22nd September, 1905, at Copmanhurst, is a small cup-shaped structure, externally formed 

 of strips and shreds of bark, plant down, spider's webs and egg-bags, firmly woven together, the 

 inside being slightly lined with fine thin strips of bark. Externally it measures two inches and 

 a quarter in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth; the inner cup measuring one inch 

 and five-eighths in depth. It is firmly attached at the rim to the thin horizontal leafy twigs of a 

 Eucalypt. Mr. Savidge writes: — "We had some difficulty in getting this nest as it was built 

 out among the twigs at the end of a branch of a lofty gum, where it was impossible to scoop the 

 eggs out, so chopped off" the limb. These birds are fairly plentiful in this district, but their nests 

 are somewhat difficult to find, as they are usually built so high up. None of us could see this 

 nest with the naked eye, but I frequently saw the birds fly to one spot, and with a field glass 

 discovered the nest. I have often seen three birds about a nest." 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being close-grained and 

 smooth, some specimens being slightly glossy, others dull and lustreless. They vary in ground 

 colour from a salmon to a reddish-buff, which gradually becomes darker on the thicker end, 

 where they have clouded bands or zones formed of numerous fleecy confluent markings of a 

 darker shade of the ground colour. Typically they are not distinctly spotted like a common 

 variety of the well-known eggs of MclUhrcpUis atricapillus, but more closely resemble the richly 

 coloured eggs of Ptilotis sonora, although of course they are much smaller. A set of two eggs in 

 Mr. George Savidge's collection, taken by him at Copmanhurst, on the 21st November, 1897, 

 measures: — Length (A) 073 x 0-53 inches; (B) 073 x 0-53 inches. Another set taken by him 

 on the 25th August. 1901, measures: — Length (A) 078 x 0-53 inches; (B) 078 x 0-52 inches. 

 A set of two taken by Mr. J. A. Boyd, at Ripple Creek, Herbert River, Queensland, on the i8th 

 October, i8g6, measures: — Length (A) 071 x 0-56 inches; (B) 073 x o'58 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults, but are much duller in colour, forehead and crown of the 

 head brown, hind neck, back and rump fulvous-brown, slightly washed with bright greenish- 

 olive on the back; lores, feathers around the eye and the ear-coverts dark brown; patch of 

 feathers at the sides of the fore neck dark brown. Wing 2-6 inches. 



In the Clarence River District, New South Wales, Mr. Savidge informs me that the breeding 

 season lasts from August until the end of January, and that he has taken eggs in both these 

 months. 



Melithreptus validirostris. 



SI'EONG HILLED-UONEY-EATER. 

 Hwmafojis validirostris, Gould, Proo. Zool. Soc, 1836, p. 144. 



Melithreptus validirostris, Gould, Bds. Aust., fob, Vol. IV., pi. 70 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 

 Vol. I., p. 56.5 (186.5); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 206 (1884). 

 Adult male — Oeneral colour above dull grey, some of the featliers of the upper back tipped with 

 yellowish-olive ; lower bach aud rump yelloivish-olire, becoming slightly brigliter on the upper tail- 

 Un 



