MELIPHAGID.E. 



distinct, and unites it with Manorhina. Undoubtedly the two are closely allied, but I think the 

 characters pointed out, and the unique crest-like form of the loral feathers of Manoi-liina, warrant 

 their separation. 



The Bell-bird is principally an inhabitant of the dense coastal brushes and contiguous 

 mountain ranges of South-eastern Australia. There are numerous specimens in the Australian 

 Museum collected in different parts of Eastern New South Wales, and two procured by ]\Ir. K. 

 Broadbent in the Darling Downs District, Southern Queensland. In New South Wales I have 

 met with it principally between Gosford and Ourimbah on the northern side of the Hawkesbury 

 River, in the gullies below BuUi Pass and other parts of the Illawarra District to the head of 

 Twofold Bay, near the southern boundary of the State. In somewhat similar country at the 

 foot of the Strzelecki Ranges, in South Gippsland, \'ictoria, I first met with it in my early 

 collecting days. It is extremely local in habits, giving preference to patches of scrub growing 

 in swampy situations, or vine-covered shrubs sheltered above by trees of larger growth. During 

 many visits to South Gippsland and different parts of the Hawkesbury River District, I have 

 noted that these birds usually frequented the same spots season after season. In many of its 

 actions it resembles the well-known Garrulous Honey-eater, or Miner, clinging head downwards 

 to branches, and closely inspecting an unwelcome intruder. Although of an inquisitive 

 disposition it fortunately lacks the pertinacity of Myzantha gari'ula, in following one through the 

 bush, and uttering its warning cries. If disturbed it frequently takes refuge among the leafy 

 branches of wide-spreading and lofty Eucalypt. When passing from one tree to another it flies 

 in a peculiar manner, somewhat resembling the exertions of a fledgeling during its first attempt 

 at flight. 



The vernacular name has been given to this species from the short bell-like tone of its principal 

 note. To hear the notes uttered by numbers of these birds when approaching a patch of country 

 they are located in sounds "like silver bells from a distant shrine." From the similarity of the 

 Bell-bird's plumage to the surrounding verdure, and its ventriloquil powers, the birds themselves 

 when perched are not at first easy to discover. 



The stomachs of specimens examined contained only the remains of insects, principally 

 beetles. 



The nest is an open cup-shaped structure, and in New South Wales is often formed of 

 Casuarina leaves and thin dried plant stems matted together with spiders' webs, and coated extern- 

 ally with a pale green lichen, the interior being lined wholly with Casuarina leaves or plant fibre. 

 The nests vary in material according to the position in which they are built ; one I found in 

 dead foliage was a very flimsy structure, and was devoid of the outer covering of moss, being 

 outwardly formed of thin dried woolly fern stems, and closely resembled in colour its 

 surroundings. As a rule, however, I have generally found that a pale green barbed lichen is 

 more or less used in their outer construction. An average nest measures externally three 

 inches and three quarters in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth, internally two inches 

 and three-quarters in diameter by one inch and three-quarters in depth. The nest is attached 

 by the rim to a thin forked horizontal branch of any tree, low shrub, or to the stems of a 

 climbing plant. Little or no preference is shown in the tree selected as a nesting site, but I 

 found more nests built in the Common Sarsaparilla (Sinilax aiistralis) that overrun many of the 

 shrubs and trees in the brushes at Ourimbah, than elsewhere, and at heights varying from 

 eighteen inches to twenty feet from the ground. The late Mr. H. G. Evered, of Melbourne, 

 forwarded me a nest of this species which he had taken in the reed-beds on Gulpha Station, near 

 Mathoura, Southern New South Wales, and I saw several sets of eggs in his collection, which 

 he informed me were taken from nests built in similar situations. 



