226 



PARDALOTID.E. 



eastern Queensland. It is more abundantly distributed in the coastal districts than the inland 

 portions of the States, frequenting both the tall Eucalypti and low scrub, where it may be 

 seen threading its way among the drooping leaves, busily engaged in searching for small insects 

 and their larvae, which constitute its food. Nowhere is it more common than in the neighbourhood 

 of Sydney, breeding freely in the suburbs, and in very hot weather I have seen it drink at a 

 dripping water tap in my garden. Its chief notes resemble a rapidly uttered, "sweet-dick." 

 Stomachs of these birds examined contained only the remains of small insects. 

 From Tasmania, Dr. L. Holden sends me the following notes: — '" Pardalotus pundaius is 

 common where I live on the banks of the Derwent, and was not uncommon where I used to live 

 on the north-west coast. Its curious piping call of two notes is \ ery familiar. I have closely 

 observed a bird that was calling, and saw that it drew up its hind neck and occiput and 

 depressed its beak to produce the first high note, the second or low note was accompanied by a 

 visible squeezing of the chest behind the sternum. It looked as if the bird got the high note by 

 inspiration, and the low note by expiration. A hole in earth is the site of the nest of this 

 Diamond-bird, but the earth may be almost anywhere, even in an old box for flowers on a window 

 sill. It may be nearly flat or perpendicular earth, it may be sand or a clay as hard as rock, it 

 may be bare or clothed with much herbage, on the wall of a great excavation, or in the side of 



a narrow orchard trench. I have found the nest in 

 a sand hill just above high water mark. On the 

 30th November, 1886, I found three nests of P. 

 punctatus: one contained young ones, the others four 

 and five eggs respectively, the former were well sat 

 upon, the latter nearly hatched. On the 2Sth 

 December I found three more nests and might have 

 obtained others. I caught the bird on one which 

 contained five nearly fresh eggs. Another nest had 

 five incubated eggs; the other I did not disturb. 

 This bird builds from September to January, and 

 lays four or five white eggs. It is often very fearless 

 when building and may be seen hovering almost 

 like a butterfly in front of its hole while the observer 

 stands close by. I once heard the note of one which 

 was in its burrow, but only once. It was a male 

 bird and I nearly caught it as it flew out." 

 The mode ia which the male produces its double note described by Dr. Holden, was also 

 observed by Mr. M. Harrison, Mr. A. L. Butler, and myself while sitting on the roadside at 

 Glenorchy, watching a fine old male uttering its call while perched a few feet away from us on 

 a wire fence. 



For the purpose of breeding it digs a tunnel in the side of a bank or stump hole about 

 eighteen inches or two feet in length, forming an enlarged chamber at the end and constructs 

 there a domed-shaped nest of strips of bark, lined at the bottom with a small quantity of grass, 

 and in some with a few feathers. An average nest measures e.xternally three inches and three- 

 quarters in length by three inches in diameter, and across the entrance one inch and a quarter. 



The eggs are usually four, sometimes five in number for a sitting, rounded oval in form, 

 pure white, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustrous. A set of five taken at Roseville, 

 on the i8th August, 1904, measures: — Length (A) o-6 x 0-51 inches; (B) o-6i x o'5i inches; 

 (C) 0-62 X 0-52 inches; (D) 0-63 x 0-51 inches; (E) o-6 x 0-5 inches. 



Young birds resemble the adult female, but are less distinctly marked, and the white spots on 

 the quills which are brown, are much smaller and more irregular in shape. Wing 2-15 inches. 



SPOTTED DIAMOND-BIRD. 



