146 WOLSTEXHOLME, Xofes from ]raliroo>n/a.[\^,^ E^^"" 



Many birds were not mature, being without any red on brow or bill; 

 rump feathers just showing the red. They swarm round the bathing- 

 pool. A party enjoying themselves there en a bright day is a pretty 

 sight. Nests all round; they were still nesting in April. 



Honeyeaters (Family Meliphagidae) are very numerous. 

 Near the verandah is a Coral-tree ( Erythriua), from which,, 

 when in flower, the varied notes of different birds from the Friar- 

 Bird or the Eeatherhead (Philemon corniculatus) to the Blood- 

 bird or Crimson Honeyeater ( Myzomcla sanguineolenta) are 

 heard, as they gather honey and insects, and flit hither and 

 thither from blossom to blossom. It is remarkable that, among 

 all the Honeyeaters in the coastal districts of Xew South Wales 

 there are not many that have pleasing notes. There is no 

 Honeyeater that, as a songster, can be compared with the Rufous 

 Whistler or the Thrush {C. harmonica), the Australian Reed- 

 \\'arbler (Acrocephalus australis) or the Jacky Winter. Many 

 ha\e notes that are harsh or discordant — the ejaculations of the 

 Gill Bird or Wattle-Bird {AcantJiochaera caritncitlata), the 

 queer talk of the Leatherhead. The bright, insistent whistle of 

 the Spinebill ( Acanthorhynchns tenuirostris), and the lovely 

 "Tink Tank" notes, now close, now distant, of Bell-Miners 

 (Manorliina mclanophrys), immortalised by Henry Kendall as 

 being — 



"Softer than slumber and sweeter than singing," 

 give great [)leasure to the ear; but these are the exception. 



Melithreptus lunulatus. White-naped Honeyeater. — These are very 

 common, and are here all the year round. Their well-known notes, 

 one plaintive and another with a sort of sucking or lisping sound, 

 are continually heard from the tall gums, where they chiefly live 

 and nest. They c( me in small parties to the bathing pool, where 

 they are shy and timid, but are not much seen in the flower garden. 

 They obtain their honey from the native trees. Smallish birds, clean- 

 looking and with bright colour contrasts — the black head, the white 

 chest, the bright yellow .green upper parts, and the little ring of 

 vermilion about the eye. They are not fruit eaters. 



Melithreptu.s brevirostris. Brown-headed Honey-eater. — This bird 

 is not so common as the White-naped, but is plentiful. It might be 

 said to resemble b White-naped, whose plumage has become very 

 faded and shabby — a little blue about the eye. They are often in 

 small companies in the bush trees and in the garden, where they are 

 very fond of the large blossoms of cannas and Bif^nonia fira>iiiiflora. 

 Their commonest note is rather jerky and unmusical. The Black- 

 chinned Honey-eater (A/, fjularis). of same genus, is like an extra big 

 lunulatus, with blue instead of vermilion about the eye. It is not 

 common. 



Myzomela sanguineolenta. Crimson Honey-eater. — This beauti- 

 ful little fellow — about the smallest and the brightest in colour of 

 the family — is plentiful roughly from October to February, accord- 

 ing to the season — in some years more numerous than in others. 

 Though their dimiuitive song may often be heard aloft in the euca- 

 lypts, the birds themselves are hard to see until they come down to 

 the flowering shriijs in the gardens, where they may nearly always 

 be found on the fiowers of the Coral-Tree ( Erythriua ) or Native 

 Bottlebrush (Callistcmon lauceolatus) , both largely grown in gardens, 



