MELITHREPTUS. 



Two sets in my collection were taken on the 13th October and the nth November respectively 

 which is comparatively late, the bird being as a rule an early nester. That of the 13th October, 

 containing three eggs, taken by myself at Berriedale, was placed among the dead leaves of the 

 drooping head of a tall Eucalypt sapling that had fallen partly across a fence and some tree trunks 

 the topmost branches remaining twenty feet or more from the ground. The nest was discovered 

 by seein- the bird fly to the spot with building material. After due time had been allowed 

 for the completion of nesting operations and laying of eggs, another sapling was cut and 

 erected immediately under the nest with the aid of ropes like a bell-tent pole, and three fresh 

 eggs obtained." 



\ nest received from Mr. E. D. Atkinson, is a compact and rather bulky cup-shaped 

 structure in comparison with the neat nests of the continental species M. gulans, M. atruapillus, 

 and M. hn-vivostvis, and one unless resembling its environment would be very easy to detect. 

 It is outwardly composed of long strips of bark and bark f^bre, which is thinly coated with a sage- 

 green lichen, the inside being lined with f^ne shreds of bark, and at the bottom with the silky- 

 brown downy covering of the young fronds of a tree-fern. Externally it measures four inches 

 in diameter by three inches and a half in depth, the inner cup measuring two inches and a half 

 in diameter by one inch and a half in depth. This nest, found by Mr. G. F. Hinsby, was built 

 about ten feet from the ground in the thin hanging twigs of a "Native Willow" growing on a 

 creek bank, four miles from St. Helens, Tasmania, and contained three slightly incubated eggs 

 Mr Atkinson sends me a note that his brother the Rev. H. D. Atkinson, of Evandale, has found 

 nests of this species in the scrub at Circular Head, also in " Native Box" trees. One found on 

 the 2nd November, 18S7, contained two fresh eggs, and another on the 4th December, three 

 hard set eggs. 



The e-gs are three in number for a sitting, of a somewhat lengthened oval in form, the shell 

 bein- closr-grained, smooth and lustreless. In ground colour they vary from a fleshy-white to 

 a fl^^hy-buff, which is dotted and spotted, particularly on the larger end, with different shades of 

 purplish-red or purplish-brown and fainter underlying markings. On some specimens the 

 markin-s are in the form of small faint purple blotches with one or more overlying spots of a 

 distinctly darker shade. The eggs of this species lack the rich ground colour of typical eggs of 

 Melithrcptus gularis and M. brcvivostyis, and approach more closely the eggs of some species of the 

 genus Ptilotis, more particularly those of F. pemcillata. A set of three from the above described 

 nest, measures :-Length (A) 0-89 x 0-63 inches; (3)0-85 x 0-63 inches; (C) 0-89 x 0-64 inches. 

 From the above quoted notes it will be seen that the breeding season commences in July 

 and continues until the middle of January. 



Melir.hreptus melanocephalus. 



BLACK-HEADED HONEY-EATER 

 Meliphaya alrkapiUa (iion Certhia atricapilla, Lath.), Jard. and Selby, pi. 134, fig. I. (183.5). 

 Eidopsarics affinis, Less., Rev. et Mag. de Zool., 1839, p 167? 

 Melithr^rius mdanoo'phalus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, IS-f.". p. 62 ; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. IV., pi. 75 



(1848); id., Handbk. Bd.. Au,,tr., Vol. I., p. .573 (1865); Gadow, Cit. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol 



IX, p. -207 (188-1). 



Adult ,uku-: -(r.nrnd clour above Mve-yellow, duJler on th. hiad neck and manth, hrhihier 



on llo' uppn- tail-coverts; roiwjs ijrnxjish-brown, quills e.r.lenudli/ edyed with grejish-white ; shoulders 



b'acld^h- tail feathers greyish-broivn narrowly ed'jed ivlth yreyish-tvhite, and haviny dark brown 



,kafh ■ entire head, throat, fore neek, and breast blaek ; a line of feathers on the sides of the neek and 



