SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 53 



It is a remarkable fact that, while all our other species make their nests in 

 hollows or holes in trees, this species should be subterranean in its nesting 

 habits. Selecting a shelving bank, the female drills a small circular tunnel 

 in a horizontal direction for several feet through the soil, and forms at the 

 end of it a regular chamber. There, in pitch darkness, she builds a carefully- 

 woven nest of bits of bark, with a hole on the side, and in this she lays four 

 ■or five rather round pure-white eggs. How these birds construct such a 

 compact nest in absolute darkness, and why they should take so much trouble 

 over one that is hidden beyond two feet of clay, are questions that are very 

 hard to answer. Though the Spotted Diamond-bird is common in some 

 localities, it is not often seen by the casual observer ; and the hole in the 

 bank leading into the nest chamber is so small that, unless you are lucky 

 enough to see the little cave-nester entering or emerging, you may easily 

 jmiss its doorway. 



The Mistletoe-bird {Dicceum hirmidinaceum Shaw). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. I, p. 581, No. 358; Leachs Bird Book, page 166, No. 366. 



This curious little bird is the sole representative in Australia of a group 

 common in the Indian region and southward to New Guinea. It has a wide 

 range over the greater part of Australia, but does not extend to Tasmania. 

 Lewin, in his " Birds of New Holland," called it the Crimson-throated 

 Honey-eater ; other writers, following its scientific name, call it the Swallow 

 Dicseum. Among popular names it has had that of Cherry -picker, but as this 

 little bird confines itself to the bush forest, the name does not seem a 

 particularly appropriate one. It is a common resident in the open forest, 

 where it makes its home in the she-oak trees. It is the bird's fondness for 

 the mistletoe — the milky-berried parasite plant which infests the she-oak in 

 common with others of our trees — -which gives it the name we have favoured. 

 Indeed, the fruit of these native mistletoes, with small insects, forms the 

 main part of our friend's diet. 



Though often numerous in suitable localities, by reason of its small size and 

 retiring habits (for it usually frequents the topmost branchlets of the she-oak), 

 the Mistletoe-bird is seldom seen by the casual visitor to bushland. Gould says 

 of its music "Its song is a very animated and long continued strain, but is 

 uttered so inwardly that it is almost necessary to stand beneath the tree 

 upon which the bird is perched before its notes can be heard." 



The Mistletoe-bird is a tiny bird with the shining black coat of a swallow 

 and the crimson throat of a robin. The female is not so richly coloured as 

 the male, the crimson tint being reduced to brownish buff. The nest is a beauti- 

 ful structure swung to a slender branchlet of she-oak or gum. It is a pear- 

 shaped bag, composed of seeds, spiders' cocoons, and soft vegetable matter. 

 It has an opening on the side and contains three or four pure-white eggs. 



