192 



MELIPHAC.ID.E. 



A nest taken by Dr. A. Chenery is a very compactly formed, cup-shaped structure, the 

 walls and rim of the nest being unusually thick, and the latter rounded ; it is formed of fine 

 shreds of bark, dried grasses, cobweb and hair, all firmly woven together, the bottom of the nest 

 inside being thickly lined with rabbit fur. Externally it measures three inches in diameter by 

 two inches and a (]uarter in depth, the inner cup two inches in diameter by one inch and a half in 



depth; width of rim half an inch. It con- 

 tained three eggs, which were forwarded 

 for examinaton, also a skin of the parent 

 bird. Writing me in July 1901, Dr. 

 Chenery remarks: — "The nest of Mi-li- 

 thrcptus hrevirostris was taken on the 24th 

 September, igoo, ina Black Wattle tree, 

 at a height often feet from the ground, in 

 the Flinders Range near Port Augusta, 

 South Australia. It is the only nest I 

 found and that after carefully watching 

 the flight of the birds while building. 

 They collected their materials at a con- 

 siderable distance from the tree containing 

 the nest." 



Altliough this species is fairly com- 

 mon in the neighbourhood of Sydney, its 

 nest is not often found. A pair built in a 

 Eucalyptus close to my house at Roseville 

 towards the end of November 1903, but 

 only succeeded in rearing a fledgeling 

 Pallid Cuckoo. The latter with the female 

 foster-parent were procured on the 7th 

 January, 1904, and are now mounted 

 in the Australian Museum. The nest 

 figured, was found in the adjoining 

 suburb of Chatswood, on the 1 2th August, 

 1 906, by Mr. R. Meikle, his attention being 

 drawn to it by the cries of young birds 

 while being fed by the parents. Three 

 days later we found the young birds had 

 left the nest but were in a sapling near 

 at hand, having their wants attended to 

 by one of the parents, probably the female. They were secured, and together with the nest are 

 now in the Group Collection of the Australian Museum. The nest, which is attached by the rim 

 to two thin horizontal leafy twigs, is a neat, deep, cup-shaped structure, externally formed of 

 thin strips of stringy bark, spiders' webs and portion of their white egg-bags, and cow-hair, all 

 woven together, the latter material being plainly visible in the accompanying figure ; inside it is 

 lined at the bottom with cow-hair into which are worked two white feathers. Externally it 

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

 one inch and three-quarters in diameter by two inches in depth. It was built in an Ironbark 

 sapling twenty-five feet from the ground, among the thin upright leafy twigs within fifteen 

 inches of the top of the tree. Later on in the season, two more nests containing young birds 

 were found at Chatswood and Roseville. 



NEST OF THE SHORT-BILLED HONRY-EATER. 



