148 \\'C)LSTEXH(>LME. Xotcs from W'ahroon.ia.U^^lE^'' 



heard aloft in the eucalypts, where they jump and flit about as 

 though playing: some Kanie, and are hard to observe. They come 

 down to the gardtn sometimes and to the bathing pool. They have 

 not been seen to take fruit. Like the Crimson Honey-eater, they 

 are fond of the Bottle-Bush ( CalUstcmon) blossoms, among which, 

 one bright summer's day, eight or ten were to be seen enjoying them- 

 selves — a sight to be remembered. They form little settlements, 

 confining themselves to a small area for nesting. A previous season 

 near here, in an area of about three acres, some fifteei. nests (all 3 or 4 

 feet from the ground) were found in the young growth sprouting 

 from the stumps of felled eucalyptus trees. Many of the nests had 

 a little bit of paper fixed in their outer parts — a scrap of newspaper 

 or torn-up letter. 



Meliornis novse-hollandiie and M. nigra. Yellow-winged and White- 

 cheeked Honey-eater. — These two fine birds, alike in appearance, 

 habit, and note, often come about in the spring and summer. The 

 White-cheeked has white about the forehead and particularly the 

 cheeks. Their home is not in timbered country, but in scrub near 

 the sea, about creeks and lagoons, among the Banksias, Callistemons, 

 etc., whence it is not far to the gardens in these suburbs. Both 

 species were to be seen almost every day in summer in a Coral-tree 

 and an Acacia-tree, next to each other and close to some natural 

 scrubby undergrowth. Restless, fussy and selfish and somewhat slow 

 of movement, having feasted on the Coral-tree blossoms, they would 

 move to the Acaci.i and hop about leisurely, giving their not very 

 pleasing notes, waiting for some excitement— the advent of a brother 

 to be welcomed or a stranger to be hunted. The chief concern 

 seemed to be to keep every other kind of bird out of that tree. They 

 would hasten across and hustle out any innocent Thornbill (Acan- 

 thiza) or Silver-eye ( Zosterops) seen on the other side. (It is a 

 transparent tree.) They rarely visit the flower beds and are not 

 fond of fruit. Both species nest not for from the ground in small 

 bushes. 



Acanthiza albiventris.- 'Vhrow^h the courtesy of the Aus- 

 tralian Museum, Sydney, I have recently had the opportunity of 

 examininjj: the type of .Icanthica alh'rccntris. North, taken at 

 Dubbo, X.S.W., August, 1876, Xo. 22917. The species is dis- 

 tinguished from Gould by "rufous chestnut upper tail coverts 

 and lighter under surface." (See "Aus. Mus. Cat.," Xests and 

 Eggs, vol. i., p. 276.) Further and equally important differences 

 have yet to be pointed out. These are the wider tail bar and 

 the lighter tail base of albk'cutris. The colour of the upper 

 coverts ("hazel," according to ^\^ Ridgway's chart) runs well 

 down on the outer webs of the tail feathers, and as these webs 

 are particularly wide, the area so coloured is large. The inner 

 webs of the tail feathers (basal half) are drab tinged with hazel 

 near shaft. These characters of tail and up])cr coverts cannot 

 be confused with those of pyrrhopy(na, and constitute in my 

 opinion a separate and distinct s])ecies, having a systematic ]K)si- 

 tion between pyrrhopyi/ia, with the dark tail base and iiropyc/ialis 

 with light and bright coloured tail base (cinnamon rufous). A 

 coloured figure of what I take to be typical albivcutris appears 

 in Mathews' "T'.irds of Australia," v()l. ix.. i>Iate 447 (1922), 

 bottom figure. A. G. Cam i'HKLI,, Croydon, Victoria. 



