MVZANTHA. 199 



The eggs, usually two sometimes three in number for a sitting, are oval in form, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. They \ary in ground colour from a fleshy-buflf to 

 a rich reddish-buff, and are spotted and blotched with purplish-red and purplish-brown, and a 

 few faint underlying markings of dull purplish-grey. As a rule the markings predominate on 

 the larger end, where the ground colour, too, is often slightly richer, but in some they are 

 almost uniformly distributed over the shell. A remarkably handsome set of two I took at 

 Ourimbah on the 25th November, 1899, are of a faint fleshy-buff ground colour, one has a zone 

 of blotches on the larger end, on the other the markings also are in a zone, but are smaller, 

 and towards the thinner end are two large blotches of purple and brown ; interspersed with 

 the markings on the thicker end of this specimen the dull purplish-grey underlying ones appear 

 to have a faint bloom on them. Length (A) 0-95 x 07 inches; (6)0-93 ^ o'Sy inches. Another 

 set of two taken the same day, are of a rich reddish -buff ground colour, and the purplish-brown 

 and purplish-grey spots and blotches are uniformly distributed over the shell. Length (A) 0-85 

 X 0-66 inches; (B) o-86 x o-66 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adults but are much duller in colour, the yellow loral spot is 

 smaller, and the feathers on the forehead, occiput, sides of head, ear-coverts and upper throat 

 have a dusky wash. Wing, 3-4 inches. 



Two, if not three broods are reared during the normal breeding season in New South 

 Wales, which commences in August and continues to January, As an instance of late breeding 

 Mr. J. A. Boyd informs me that at Eden, Twofold Bay, he caught a couple of young Bell-birds 

 on the 6th March, 1906. At Ourimbah Mr. S. W. Moore and his son, Mr. W. L. Moore, on 

 the 2nd October, 1899, found two nests, each with two eggs, one set partly, the other much 

 incubated, one apparently new nest and two nests each containing two young ones. In the same 

 locality on the 25th November, 1899, nearly two months later, I saw many old nests and 

 fledgelings, and found two nests, one with two slightly, the other with two heavily incubated 

 eggs. On the 26th December, 1902, in the same place I observed fledgelings that had but 

 recently left the nest. 



C3-en\n.S ls/L'^ZiJ^1>TT'1^j£i>., Vigors and Horsfield. 



Myzantha garrula. 



GARRULOUS HONEY-EATER. 

 Merops garrulus, Lath., lud. Orii., Suppl., p. x.xxiv (1801). 



Myzantha garrula, Gould, Bd.s. Austr., fol.. Vol. IV., pi. 76 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds., Vol. I., p. 

 .574 (1805). 



Manorhina garrula, Uadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 260 (1884). 



Adult male — <Teneral colour above light greyish-broirn, the feathers of the hind neck having dull 

 tchitis/i margins, and those un the back having distinctly darker centres; upper wing-coverts like the 

 hack, the lesser and median series having a blackish loasli; quills dark brown, the primaries externally 

 edged loith light greyish-brown, their apical portion margined ivith white; outer webs and tips of the 

 innermost secondaries light greyish-brown, the outer webs of the remainder margined with olive-yellow; 

 tail brown tipped with broivnish-tvhite, more largely on the outermost feathers, and passing into almost 

 pure ivhite on their inner webs and towards the ends, the central feathers washed with light greyish- 

 broion except near their shafts; forehead, lores, and fore parts of cheeks greyish-white; crown of the 

 head dull black; sides of the throat blackish-grey, ear-coverts silky-black ; throat ivhitish with a dusky 

 grey streak down the centre, the feathers on the chin tipped ivith pale yellow; remainder of the under 



