PARDALOTUS. 219 



picking out the mortar between the stones of the head station at Tharalga, probably for the same 

 purpose. The eggs are almost invariably four in number." 



Mr. Edwin Ashby, writing from Blackwood, remarks: — "■Pavdalotus oniatus is common here 

 and almost everywhere in South Australia, and I send you specimens from widely separated 

 localities and different kinds of country. I have only found their nests here in thatched roofs, 

 they burrow into the eaves like a mouse." 



Mr. W. W. White of the Reed-beds near Adelaide, sent me a note that Pardaloius ornatus 

 used to be very common in the red-gum trees around his house, but the introduced House 

 Sparrow had driven many of them out of their nesting-places. In July 1893 he picked up nine 

 adult birds apparently killed by the cold weather after being ousted from their haunts. Since 

 the decrease in numbers of these birds the gum-tree blight has increased to a great extent. 



Mr. E. H. Lane of Wambangalang Station, near Dubbo, New South Wales, writes me: — 

 " In my early boyhood's days at Orton Park, near Bathurst, the favourite nesting-place of 

 Pardaloius ornatus was in the nest of the Fairy Martin, from which I have known them to eject 

 the young of the latter and take possession and build their own nests. I have also known them 

 to burrow into the mortar of badly formed stone walls and build their nests between the roughly 

 placed stones. Also to nest in the hollow limbs of trees and at the end of a tunnel in banks 

 and cuttings." In the Australian Museum collection there is a skin of an adult male collected 

 by Dr. Ramsay, labelled "Cardington, Bell River, New South Wales, found breeding in the 

 nest oi Lagcnoplastcs arid, November, i860." 



On Wattagoona Station near Louth, in Western New South Wales, Mr. James Ramsay 

 and Mr. Edward Lord Ramsay found the nests of this species built in various sites. About 

 buildings these birds often took possession of the nest of the Fairy Martin, and on one occasion 

 constructed their nest between the ceiling and the roof. Another pair worked assiduously at the 

 mortar in a crevice of the stone work, but finally had to abandon it, in fact any situation is 

 utilized by this bird where it is possible to construct its nest under cover. In the paddocks 

 Mr. E. L. Ramsay obtained them usually in the hollow limbs of trees, and on several occasions 

 found them breeding in company with Cheramccca hucosternum in a hole in the side of a bank or 

 creek; they prefer, however, to make a tunnel where the earth is harder than the site usually 

 chosen by the White-breasted Swallow for its nest. When resorting to the bank of a creek, 

 Mr. Ramsay informs me the nest is cup-shaped with a short spout, and is composed entirely of 

 wiry rootlets and grasses, neither bark nor feathers being used, as when built in the hollow limb 

 of a tree. 



While resident in the Western District, Victoria, Dr. W. Macgillivray kindly sent me the 

 following notes: — "Pardaloius ornatus is common amongst the gums in all parts of the Hamilton 

 District. They nest from September until the end of November, and choose either a tree or the 

 bank of a creek or gully for the purpose, they are fond of building close to one another, several 

 nests, six or seven I have noticed, being within a radius of twenty or thirty yards, and the same 

 locality is resorted to year after year. The burrow, whether in a bank or in the softened centre 

 of a tree, is usually rounder than that of the Spotted Diamond-bird, and the nest is not so well 

 made as that of the latter bird, the foundation usually being a compact mass of rootlets and 

 fine grass, but very scantily roofed in. The Pardalotes are very local in their habits and tend 

 to form local races or phases differing usually in the shade of the coloured speculum and in the 

 amount and extent of the white on the primaries." 



The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, oval or rounded-oval in form, pure white, 

 the shell being close-grained smooth and slightly lustrous. A set of four measure:— Length (A) 

 078 X 0-55 inches; (B) 079 x 0-56 inches; (C) 075 x 0-53 inches; (D) 079 x 0-55 inches. 



