56 Mr. D. Le Souef on Birds 



6. MicROGLossus ATERRiMus (Gm.), (Great Palm 

 Cockatoo.) 



The egg of this bird has been previously described from 

 New Guinea, but Mr. Barnard has noticed its nesting-habits, 

 ■wliicli are well worth recording, though he was not fortunate 

 enough to secure the eggs. These birds nest in the forest- 

 country, and having chosen a hollow in a tree they, with their 

 powerful beaks, break off green twigs about the thickness of 

 a man's finger and carry them into the hole, having first 

 removed all the leaves from the twigs. They then bite them 

 into small pieces from two to three inches in length and strew 

 them thickly over the bottom of the hole. One nest to which 

 he climbed up in a large dead bloodwood stump, fviHy 200 

 yards from the nearest scrub, had the bottom of the hole 

 covered to a depth of four inches with twigs of scrub-trees. 

 Ko leaves are put in ; the holes themselves are generally two 

 feet in depth. The apparent reason for the twigs being in 

 the hole is that the birds breed from November to March — 

 that is, during the rainy season, and as the holes for their 

 nests are always chosen in upright trunks, the sticks would 

 keep their single white egg or young off the wet rotten 

 debris at the bottom of the hole. An egg of this bird in the 

 collection of Mr. G. A. Keartland was taken at Cape York 

 in February 1897 ; it is dull white in colour, and the surface 

 slightly rough, in shape a swollen oval, slightly pointed at 

 one end, and measures 2'12xl"55 inch. 



7. Ptilotis gracilis Gould. (Plate I.) (Graceful 

 Honey-eater.) 



This active little bird is found on the north-east coast from 

 Cape York to Cardwell, and probably further. Specimens 

 were secured at Somerset by Mr. Barnard, and in the Bloom- 

 field River district by Mr. Hislop and myself. They seem 

 nowhere very plentiful, and are often found in the open 

 country and in the edges of the scrub. They build their nests 

 among the leaves near the end of a branch of some thickly- 

 foliaged tree, generally some 20 feet or more from the 

 ground. 



