MVZANTIIA. 201 



a pair taking up their quarters in an orchard during the drought of 1902. I first saw them 

 on the ijtli May, and they remained throughout the year, rearing a brood of three young ones 

 in a tree close by. The latter when fledged were mobbed by other species, and particularly 

 by Ptilotis auvkomis. They were not seen after the end of January. At Hobart, Tasmania, I 

 have seen this species frequenting the Government Domain and Botanic Gardens. 



Another habit of this bird is, when one remains perfectly quiet beneath the tree it is in, it 

 will gradually descend from branch to branch, often holding by its claws or hanging head 

 downwards peering about in an inquisitive manner until within a few feet of the intruder. In 

 confinement, too, their actions are most grotesque, clinging to the roof of their cage, and 

 assuming every conceivable attitude. They soon become exceedingly tame, and I have had 

 them come down and take sugar, or gently peck one's finger when placed between the wires. 



The normal food of this species is the nectar and pollen of flowers and insects. Stomachs 

 of these birds, shot in August, contained only the remains of insects, principally black beetles, 

 caterpillar skins, and a few small pieces of gravel. It is, however, one of the worst bird 

 pests orchardists and viticulturists have to contend with, for it destroys large quantities 

 of fruit and grapes. In New South Wales it is especially destructive in the Hunter River, 

 Wagga, and Albury Districts. 



The nest is an open cup-shaped structure rather irregularly formed externally of long thin 

 twigs and coarse grasses, slightly held together with cobwebs and egg bags of spiders, lined 

 inside with fine fibrous rootlets and dried grasses, and at the bottonr with a quantity of cowhair, 

 fur, wool or other soft material. An average nest measures externally, omitting straggling 

 twigs and grasses, seven inches in diameter by four inches and a half in depth, the inner cup 

 measuring three inches and a quarter in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth. The 

 nesting site is varied; in gum-sapling and Banksia scrubs it is built between upright forks, often 

 within hand reach, and six to ten or twelve feet from the ground. In open forest lands it is 

 frequently built among the terminal leafy twigs near the end of a branch, at an altitude of 

 thirty or forty feet from the ground. That the nests of this species are as a rule easily 

 accessible is proved by the numerous specimens of eggs of the Garrulous Honey-eater to be 

 found in collections formed by bird-nesting boys in the country districts of South-eastern 

 Australia. 



The eggs are usually three, sometimes four in number for a sitting, and are extremely 

 variable in shape, size, and disposition of markings. They are elongate oval, oval, or rounded 

 oval in form, the shell being close grained, smooth and more or less lustrous. In ground colour 

 they vary from almost pure white, faint reddish and bufTy-white to a pale reddish and creamy- 

 buflf, which is freckled, spotted or blotched with different shades varying from light red and 

 reddish-brown to rich chestnut and purplish-red, intermingled with less numerous underlying 

 markings of violet or purplish-grey. In some the markings are unevenly distributed over 

 the surface of the shell, in others they predominate chiefly on the thicker end, where they often 

 form a more or less well defined cap or zone. In a large number of sets now before me many 

 from widely separated districts resemble each other, thus eggs from the open forest lands of 

 Blacktown, Wellington, Dubbo, and the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, are similar to 

 specimens obtained from Western Port Bay, \'ictoria, and near Hobart, Tasmania, and are of 

 the most common type. Sets from the Upper Clarence River may be distinguished by their 

 smaller size and markings, and resemble others taken in the Dawson River District, Queensland, 

 but among the former are some with rich ground colours and distinctly darker markings which 

 I have seen from no other locality. Of so different a character are several sets of eggs collected 

 by Mr. G. Savidge, about Copmanhurst, that when he first showed them to me I was puzzled 

 to know what species to attribute them to. A set of three taken by him on the 30th August, 

 1897, measures: — Length (A) o'qj x 07 inches; (6)0-93 ^ 0-69 inches; (C) o'95 x 071 inches. 



