^"Igos^'j Berney, Birds of the R/c/njioiid District, N.Q. 75 



of the lower one, bodes ill for any small animal that gets between 

 them. 



Northern Thickhead {Pachycepliala falcata). — I have only one 

 record — a male, obtained on the river, 30th May, 1902. 



Rufous-breasted Thickhead {Pachycephala rufiventris). — Very 

 common among any lightly timbered country or open scrub. A nest 

 with eggs was found on 14th October — my only note in this connec- 

 tion. 



Black-backed Tree-creeper {Climacteris melanonota). — The loud 

 " Spink, spink " of this Climacteris is to be heard fairly frequently 

 among the river timber. To make sure of the species I shot a specimen 

 for identification. Later in the same day (13th January, 1904) I 

 watched a pair feeding a nestful of young in a hollow spout, five and 

 thirty feet from the ground, in a river gum. This species has a most 

 peculiar cheesy or mouse-trap smell ; it is most curious, and strikes 

 one as soon as the bird is handled. 



Striated Tree-runner {Sittella striata). — Not to be seen very 

 frequently. Its visits, generally in small parties of eight or thereabout, 

 do not appear to be confined to any one season of the year. Its feet 

 are large for the size of the bird, but eminently adapted for running 

 up or down the rough bark of trees. The peculiarly shaped bill, too — 

 long and narrow, with a slight dip in the culmen — is beautifully suited 

 for searching out insects in crevices. It hunts the foliage as well as 

 the trunks, and on the latter is just as much at home running head 

 downward as going up. 



Blood Honey-eater {Myzomela sanguineolentai). — I found an 

 individual resting, weak and dazed, on the verandah at Wyangarie, 

 which died a couple of hours later — from simple poverty, it seemed. 

 It w^as an entire stranger to me, and must, I think, have been consider- 

 ably out of its beat. It was a young bird. 



White-fronted Honey-eater {Glycyphila albifvons). — I have only 

 come across this Honej'-eater once — iith July, 1904 — and then I 

 obtained a male among the tea-tree {Melaleuca leucadendron) along the 

 Flinders River. Dissection, I am sorry to say, proved that it must 

 have had a sitting mate close by. It has a cheerful song. 



Brown Honey-eater (Glycyphila ocularis). — Found a nest con- 

 taining two eggs, white and spotless, on 2nd June, 1905, which is, I 

 think, an unusual date. They are sweet singers. From experience I 

 can quite bear out Gould's statement that " while the female is sitting 

 on her eggs the male sings all day, with scarcely any intermission." 

 The little Brown Honey-eaters are plentiful on Spring Valley, and can 

 be heard along any watercourse where the tea-trees and eucalypts are 

 in flower. I think, with Mr. Tom Carter, that they confine themselves 

 to the \icinily of ranges.* 



Yellow Miner (Myzantha Lutea). — A permanent rcvsident, and 

 a very noisy one, and breeds apparently all the year round. I was 

 much interested in making the acquaintance of a pair at Gladevale 

 homestead, where they had become so tame that they would enter the 

 diningroom at meal times, and while waiting to be served would perch 

 on the cruet stand, the back of your chair, or any convenient spot ; 

 this, too, with several people seated at table and a cat on the floor. A 



* Emu, vol. iii., p. 92. 



