PARDALOTUS. 



•233 



Immature males have the crimson tips to the primary-coverts smaller and the feathers on 

 the crown of head dull black, some of them having ashy-brown tips. 



Pardalotus quadragintus. 



FORTY-SPOTTEU DIAMOND-BIRD. 

 Pardalotus quadragintus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 148; id., Bds. Austr., fol , Vol. 11., pi. 37 



(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. J., p. IGO (1865); Sharps, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 



Vol. X., p. 62 (1885). 

 Adult male — General colour above dull olive-green with blackish margins to most of the feathers, 

 the apical portion of those on the head having small blackish centres; upper tail-coverts olive-yellow, 

 the longest ones having dull grey centres, narrow blackish shaft lines and brighter yellow tips; 

 lesser wing-coverts like the back, the median and greater coverts black with a rounded spot of white at 

 the lip; quills blackish, all but the outermost primary with a spot of white at the lip of the outer iveb, 

 increasing in size towards the innermost secondaries, most of the quills being narroivly edged externally 

 with greyish-white, the outer web of the first primary edged with white; tail feathers dusky-grey, 

 blackish towards the tips which are edged ivith while; lores, feathers above and below the eye and the 

 earcoverts dull olive-yellow; all the under surface ashy-rvhite with indistinct dusky centres to the 

 feathers, the sides of the breast and abdomen washed with olive-yellow; under tailcoverts yellow. 

 Total length o'-j inches, wing ,3-3d, tail IS, bill 0-25, tarsus 0-7. 



Adult female — <S'init^ar in plumage to the male. 

 Distribution — Tasmania; King Island, Bass Strait. 



(»KLTHOUGH conspicuously marked on the wings the Forty-spotted Diamond-bird is 

 Jir\- otherwise the most uniformly plumaged species of the genus, from all members of which 

 it may also be distinguished by its comparatively small bill. The only place I observed this 

 species during a visit to Tasmania in December 1906, was at the Cascades near Hobart. There 

 are a number of specimens in the Australian Museum collection obtained by Mr. George 

 Masters at the Ouse River and Mount Wellington, and by Mr. K. Broadbent at Badger Head. 

 Specimens were also procured by the members of the Field Naturalist's Club of Victoria on 

 King Island, in Bass Strait. 



Mr. George K. Hinsby sends me the following note: — "Pardalotus quadragintus inhabits 

 Eastern and Southern Tasmania. It frequents only the Eucalyptus forests, not being found in 

 the large tracts of Myrtle or Pine of the South-west and West. I found it breeding in the high 

 gums (Eucalyptus viminalis) at the heads of the Scamander and George Rivers. It is usually found 

 in gums from one hundred to three hundred feet high and scrub of different varieties beneath, 

 and it appears only to e.Kist on the Eucalypts ; I have never seen it feeding on other varieties 

 of trees. I took a nest on Bruni Island from a hollow spout of a White Gum, it was the 

 lowest I have seen and was about thirty feet from the ground. The nest is a dome-shaped 

 compact structure, made principally of the fibre of Eucalyptus bark, and the eggs are white 

 and usually four in number. I observed this species at South Port, on D'Entrecasteaux 

 Channel, and wherever the Eucalyptus occurs in forest along the channel and Derwent River 

 to Glenora, in fact all over the country except in too open forests." 



The following information has been extracted from notes sent me by Mr. A. L. Butler of 

 Hobart : — ^'Pardalotus quadragintus is difficult to locate, as it is very silent, and is usually searching 

 for food amongst the thick leaves of the Blue Gum, over thirty feet from the ground. The 

 position of the nest is in a hollow limb of a tree, about twenty-five to thirty-five feet from the 

 ground, and usually from eight to twelve inches from the opening. Tie nest is made of fine 



