224 PARDALOTID.E. 



were busy feeding their young, giving every opportunity for observation. I was on a fishing 

 excursion at the time with Mr. J. W. Tarleton, and knowing how rarely this bird nested under 

 ground, I resolved to catch one to con\ince my companion of its identity. This was easily 

 accomplished by watching a bird enter a tunnel and then placing the landing-net over the hole. 

 On leaving the nest it was of course secured and I held it while Mr. Tarleton wrote a full 

 description of it in his pocket-book. There were only four or five pairs, and they bored into the 

 bank at the spot where the alluvial soil rested on a gravel bed about four or five feet above the 

 water. I subsequently cut in as far as one of the nests, exposing the young birds, which I was 

 glad to see the parents after some hesitation continued to feed. The length of the tunnel to the 

 nest chamber appears to vary a good deal in accordance with the difficulties encountered, as 

 those in the bank of the former river were usually fifteen inches and upwards in length, 

 whilst the nest I exposed in the latter locality was not more than six inches from the face of the 

 bank. The eggs are three and sometimes four in number for a sitting, but from my own experience 

 the former is usual. 



"The principal breeding months are October and November; all the eggs in my collection 

 were taken in the former month. I have not myself taken eggs from nests in trees, although 

 meeting with the birds nesting in that way on numberless occasions. ^Ir. A. L. Butler gives 

 the following dates from his notes of four nests taken from trees: — 15th, 23rd, 26th September, 

 and 1st November." 



From Hobart, Mr. A. L. Butler sends me the following note: — "The usual position of the 

 nest of Pardalotus affinis is in a hollow limb of a gum tree, about eighteen to forty feet from the 

 ground, the entrance to it being through a small hole. The nest is generally domed but some- 

 times cup-shaped, with a few strips of bark raised over the top, and measures from two inches 

 and a half to three inches and a half in diameter. The eggs are usually three, sometimes four, 

 but not often. To my knowledge for the last fifteen years a colony of these birds has nested in 

 a high bank formed of a sandy clay soil on the side of a river. Some years ago there used to be 

 forty or fifty pairs, but the last time I visited the spot, about three years ago, there were only 

 about fifteen to twenty pairs. The nesting holes were about eighteen to twenty-six inches in 

 length by one inch and a half in diameter, with a chamber four to five inches at the end, the nest 

 not quite filling up the chamber. Out of fourteen holes grubbed out, eight nests examined had 

 three eggs, three had four eggs, and three only two eggs, the latter probably not complete sets." 



The site of a breeding place of this species in the side of a high bank is reproduced 

 from a photograph taken by Mr. Malcolm Harrison. 



Mr. E. D. x\tkinson writes me: — "Wherever I have been in Tasmania or on the larger 

 islands of Bass Strait I have met with Pavdalotus affinis. Like many other species it is silent 

 during a great part of the year, its familiar note "pick-it-up" is usually first heard in the early 

 part of September. Asa rule it builds its nest in a hole in a tree, but I have taken the eggs on 

 one occasion from a hole in the bank of a road cutting at Circular Head." Mr. Atkinson also 

 informs me that his brother the Rev. H. D. Atkinson, of Evandale, found three nests of this 

 species built in holes in gum trees at Circular Head, each of which contained four eggs. They 

 were taken respectively on the 3rd December, 1886, the 30th October, and ist November, 1S88. 



Mr. E. H. Lane sends me the following note: — "The only set of eggs of Pardalotus affinis I 

 have in my collection, the bird of which I shot and sent you, were taken by me at Wambangalang 

 Station, near Dubbo, New South Wales. The nest, which I found on the 30th October, 1901, 

 was built in a hollow limb of a tree and contained four fresh eggs." 



The e^'"s are usually three or four in number for a sitting, and vary from nearly round to 

 rounded-oval in form; they are pure white, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly 

 lustrous. A set of four measures:— Length (A) 075 x o-6 inches; (B) 074 x 0-58 inches; (C) 

 073 X 0-6 inches; (D) 075 x 0-59 inches. One egg of a set of four, taken by Dr. L. Holden, 



