228 PARDALOTIDiE. 



The Golden-rumped Diamond-bird is not so widely distributed as the preceding species, but 

 it may be often found frequenting the same localities. From the former which it greatly resembles 

 in the character and disposition of its markings, it may be chiefly distinguished by the bright 

 golden-yellow feathers of the rump, this part being chestnut-brown in Fardalotus pundatus : on the 

 under surface it is also destitute of the chestnut-brown wash to the feathers on the lower part 

 of the throat and at the base of the under tail-coverts. The extremes of its range as represented 

 by specimens in the Australian Museum collection is Mongup, Salt River, Western Australia, 

 where Mr. George Masters obtained an adult male in January 1869, and Lithgow on the Blue 

 Mountains, New South Wales, an adult male in the collection being procured there by Mr. 

 Richard Grant. Another specimen was obtained at the same time, but it was too mutilated to 

 preserve. Lithgow is 3,009 feet above the sea-level, and one of the most humid localities on 

 the Blue Mountains. This is the only occasion I have known this species to occur so far north, 

 its range being almost restricted to the south-western and drier portions of the State. Among 

 specimens in the collection from intermediate localities is an adult male from the junction of the 

 Murray and the Darling Rivers, another with the ^iS. uMne: " Pardalotus leadbeateri, (Ramsay), 

 Murray River, Victoria, 1S66," and one received fjom Mr. A. Zietz, procured by him at Golden 

 Square, near Adelaide. Four specimens obtained in South Australia have been kindly lent for 

 examination by the Trustees of the South Australian Museum, and with them Mr. A. Zietz, the 

 Assistant Director, has sent me the following note: — "Pardalotiis xanthopygius is fairly numerous 

 in some parts of the Mount Lofty Ranges, near Adelaide, but nests which are situated at the 

 end of a tunnel drilled into the level ground are somewhat scarce now, chiefly owing, I think, 

 to the clearing of the scrub. My son and I have found many of their tunnels scratched up by 

 Bandicoots, which evidently dig for the eggs or young birds." 



Two adult males, one obtained at Happy \'alley, and the other at Sandy Point, Yorke's 

 Peninsula, South Australia, were received on loan from Mr. Edwin Ashby, of Blackwood, who 

 writes me as follows: — "Pardalotiis xanthopygius is often seen in my orchard and the birds are very 

 tame, drinkmg in the reservoir, as also does P. ornatus. I have never seen them nesting in the 

 garden, but doubtless they do so close by. At Happy Valley, which is a lower altitude, about 

 four miles away, they choose a spot in the white sandy soil where there is a slight rise, but hardly 

 enough to be called a bank, and there make a tunnel about eighteen inches in length at the end of 

 which they construct a dome-shaped nest of bark." 



Dr. A. M. Morgan writes me: — "Pardalotiis xautliopygiiis, I have met with as far north as 

 Port Augusta, and in all the country between there and Adelaide. I have found its nests 

 from October to January, and in my experience, the tunnels were always formed in a bank, but 

 have heard of it drilling a hole in the level ground, as the Bee-eaters sometimes do. The eggs 

 are three or four in number, usually four." 



Mr. C. J. McLennan writes me; — "Pardalotiis xaiitliopygiiis is common on Pine Plains Station 

 in the Wimmera District, North-western \ictoria. Its food consists of insects and scale obtained 

 on the mallee leaves and bark. By imitating their note one can allure them to within a few feet. 

 For breeding purposes a small hole is burrowed in the soil from fifteen inches to two feet in 

 length, at the end of which is a rounded chamber, and here the nest, which is built of narrow- 

 strips of bark and bark fibre, is formed. Four eggs is the full complement laid. The usual 

 breeding season is from July to the end of December." 



The eggs are four in number for a sitting, rounded oval in form, and occasionally somewhat 

 pointed at the smaller end. They are pure white, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and 

 lustrous. A set of four taken by Mr. C. J. McLennan, on Pine Plains Station, Wimmera District, 

 Mctoria, in September 1902, measures: — Length (A) 0-63 x 0-53 inches; (B) 0-65 x 0-54 inches; 

 (C) 0-63 X 0-51 inches; (D)o-65 x o'54 inches. A set of four in Mr. G. A. Keartland's collection 



