216 



that the berries formed its sole food, and that this bird was the chief agent in the dispersal of the 

 plant, as I often found the berries sprouting where they had been passed by the bird. However 

 they did not require to pass through the bird to ensure their sprouting, as several that I plastered 

 on to branches grew quite as well as those dropped by Dicicnm." 



Mr. Frank Hislop writes me: — "The Swallow Dicanim is very common in the Bloomfield 

 River District, North-eastern Queensland, and are very fond of the berries of the mistletoe. 

 1 have noticed on a Wattle tree where these birds have been feeding their young, that the 

 seeds which they have passed are stuck on the branches and would germinate after the 



r ^^^^^^^^^^ ^^_. first week if rain comes on. The small domed 



^J^^^^^^^KBK^^ iisst of this bird is made of cobweb and the 



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ fluff off the Bottle-brush cone. I found one 



^^ ^J^^^^IW with two fresh eggs, in a She-oak tree growing 



■ wl ^^Hf'^ on the sea-beach about fifteen yards from the 



water." 



The nest is a small pear-shaped structure 

 with a comparatively large entrance on one 

 side near the top, where it is much thicker 

 than at the back, it is usually composed of 

 plant down with a slight addition of cobwebs, 

 and is beautifully woven together, closely 

 resembling felt. Dull white or brownish- 

 white is the prevailing hue of the nests, except 

 when built in mountain ranges and coastal 

 brushes, when the red downy covering of the 

 freshly budded fronds of the ferns is often 

 utilized. The nest figured, taken by Dr. \V. 

 A. Ango\e, at Tea-tree Gully, South Aus- 

 tralia, on the 13th October, 1906, differs in 

 form from any I have seen, in having a 

 strengthening piece of rounded nesting 

 material two inches and a quarter in length 

 and half an inch in thickness running from 

 the branch to which the nest is attached all 

 down the back of the structure. An average 

 nest measures three inches and a quarter in 

 length, its greatest diameter two inches and 

 a quarter, the aperture which is pear-shaped, 

 measuring one inch and a quarter in length 

 by one inch in width. It is firmly attached 

 at the back near the top to a thin slanting leafy branch, the leaves of which usually more or less 

 conceal the structure, and is built at a height varying from two and a half to forty feet from the 

 ground. Little or no preference is shown for any particular kind of tree, gums, wattles, and 

 swamp oaks are from their being so common in the neighbourhood of Sydney, more often 

 resorted to, but any scrub or brush tree is also utilized. Some nests are more oval in form than 

 the one here figured. 



I received a nest, with the parent birds shot close by on the nth January, 1S91, together 

 with a set of three eggs, from Mr. W. J. Grime, of the Tweed River, New South Wales, who 

 informed me that he had the nest, which was built in a tree near his house, under observation 

 since it was commenced, and that eleven days elapsed before it was completed and ready for eggs. 



NEST OF MISTLETOE-BIRD. 



