PARDALOTUS. 221 



is incorrect. It is difficult also to reconcile it with his remarks in the succeeding paragraph where 

 he states that he has " positive evidence that some of the Australian species reproduce their kind 

 before they have attained their adult livery." I have never yet seen or heard of an instance, 

 which Gould refers to, in the genus Pardalotus. 



New South Wales is the stronghold of Pavdalotus assimilis. It is common in the coastal 

 districts, in the western suburbs of Sydney, on the Blue Mountains, and also occurs in more 

 limited numbers in the forest lands beyond them at Wellington and Dubbo. In these localities 

 numerous specimens have been obtained by Dr. E. P. Ramsay, Mr. J. A. Thorpe and myself. 

 At one time I regarded the species frequenting the neighbourhood of Sydney as Pardalotus ornatus, 

 the latter, however, I have not seen on the coastal side of the Blue Mountains, but apparently 

 it occurs as far east as the neighbourhood of Bathurst. From Queensland there is but 

 a single specimen in the Australian Museum collection, a semi-adult female procured at Port 

 Denison in June 1864. 



For the purpose of breeding it tunnels a hole in the side of a bank, forming at the end an 

 enlarged chamber where a domed or partially domed-shaped nest is built, principally of strips 

 and shreds of bark. The tunnel is of varying length, at Seven Hills and Rooty Hill they 

 averaged from fifteen to eighteen inches in length, but one I found formed in the soft sandy soil 

 of a bank on the roadside at La Perouse containing young, was only seven inches in length. 

 At Blacktown I noted this species building in the narrow openings left in the brickwork at the 

 railway station. Two birds procured on the same day close by, were obtained while tunnelling 

 holes in a bank, and had the apical half of their bills coated with earth. 



Mr. E. H. Lane writes me: — "The only properly authenticated nest oi Pardalotus assimilis 

 taken by me, the birds of which I shot and sent you, was found on Wambangalang Station. 

 Two more nests believed to belong to this species were taken on the 17th October, i8gg, 

 one on the 3rd October, 1901, and another on the 20th November of the same year. All were 

 built at the end of tunnels from eighteen to two feet in length, in the bank of a creek, and each 

 nest contained four white eggs." 



Mr. G. A. Keartland sends me the following note: — "On several occasions I found 

 Pardalotus assimilis in the red gum trees at Beaconsfield, Clayton, and Heidelberg, Victoria. 

 During a visit to Phillip Island, Western Port Bay, Mr. J. Gabriel secured several sets of eggs 

 from holes in the bank of a creek, capturing one of the parent birds on the nest in one of the 

 burrows." 



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

 the shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. A. set of four taken at Blacktown, 

 on 27th September, 1899, measures: — Length (A) 075 x 0-58 inches; (B) 072 x 0-55 inches; 

 (C)o76 X 0-56 inches; (D) 071 x 0-57 inches. 



With the exception of the differences pointed out in this species, the young and semi-adult 

 birds difler from the adults in precisely the same manner as do those of Pardalotus ornatus. In 

 some young and semi-adult specimens the wing speculum is as large and brilliant as is in the adult. 



August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season of this species. 

 West of Sydney, between Parramatta and Penrith, nests with eggs are more often found in 

 September. 



Pardalotus affinis. 



ALLIED DIAMOND-BIRE>. 

 Pardalolris affinis, Gould, Proe. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 25; id., Bds. Austr., fol.. Vol. II., pi. 39 (1818); 

 id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 163 (1865); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. X., 

 p. 57 (1885). 



DdI 



