52 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



The food of this bird chiefly consists of land snails, earth-worms, insect 

 larvae, and ants. It is one of the earliest nesting birds in the bush. Com- 

 mencing to build in mid-winter it constructs a large open nest of moss, 

 leaves, and grass matted together with earth, and lined inside. Built upon a 

 stout limb of a low tree, it is usually well sheltered by the scrub and, even 

 if only a few feet off the ground, is easily passed unnoticed. The buff-white 

 eggs, two or three in number, are spotted or blotched with reddish-brown 

 and clouded with red. 



The Spotted Ground-bird (Cinclosoina punctatum Latham). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 433, No. 271 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 128, No. 206. 



Five species of this genus are given in Ramsey's list— one a rare species 

 from Derb}', north-west Australia, and four (of which two are common in 

 New South AVales) from the interior. The Spotted Ground-bird is found in 

 Tasmania, and ranges through South Australia and Victoria, well up into 

 Queensland. It frequents scrubby country, trusting to its running powers 

 when startled ; its habits and actions are somewhat similar to those of the 

 quail. 



These birds, says Gould, were often exposed for sale in Hobart under the 

 name of the Ground Dove, together with Wattle-birds and Bronze-wing 

 Pigeons. They are handsome birds with chestnut, black and white plumage, 

 but though widely scattered over the country, are seldom seen by the ordinary 

 traveller on account of their retiring habits. They form a loose round nest 

 of bark and leaves, which is always built on the ground, and contains two, 

 and sometimes three, large, brown, blotched eggs. 



The Spotted Diamond-bird (Pardalotus pimctatus Tem.). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 157, No. 81 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 167, No. 340. 



The beautiful little birds belonging to the genus Pardalotus are peculiar to 

 Australia and Tasmania. Seven species were listed by Gould, Two or three 

 species may sometimes be found frequenting the same locality, but some have 

 a well-defined range. This representative species has a very wide distribu- 

 tion over Tasmania and the southern and eastern areas of Australia. 

 In the days when every genteel home had a case of stuffed birds in a 

 prominent position in the drawing-room, the motley assembly invariably 

 contained a pair of Spotted Diamond-birds. They are very active, fearless 

 little birds. I remember, as a small boy in Victoria, watching a pair that spent 

 a lot of time on the shingle roof of a verandah, scraping up the soft, weathered 

 wood fibre, which they apparently collected and carried off to line their nest. 

 They spend most of their time among the foliage of the trees, hunting on the 

 leaves and among the loose bark on the trunk and branches for all sorts of 

 small insects. 



