58 INIr. D. Le Souef on Birds 



Mr. Barnard on the subject, in which he states : — " There can 

 be no mistake about the two Honey-eaters being different, 

 as I shot both kinds from the nests. Both the nests and the 

 eggs are diflerent^ and also the birds have a totally different 

 note." 



8. Ptilotis notata Gould. (Yellow-spotted Honey-eater.) 

 This species is very plentiful on the north-east coast, and is 

 probably the most familiar bird in the scrubs, and certainly 

 the most in evidence, as they are very fearless and may often 

 be seen basking in the clear pools of water, of which habit 

 they seem very fond, or dashing one after another among the 

 thickly-growing timber, uttering their loud note as they go, 

 which on such occasions is different from the note they usually 

 utter. They seem to be found most frequently in the scrubs, 

 and rarely in the open forest-country. They often build 

 their nests very low down ; one I noticed, with two eggs in it, 

 was suspended to a palm-leaf at the side of the road, and was 

 only six inches from the ground. Two seems to be the 

 general number of the clutch. 



The somewhat loosely-built nests are composed principally 

 of shreds of a coarse grass, with pieces of paper-bark, and are 

 lightly covered externally with cobwebs. The interior is lined 

 with the glossy white down from the native cotton-pod ; their 

 diameter is 3^ inches by 3 inches in depth, internal diameter 

 2^ inches by 2 inches in depth. The ground-colour of the egg 

 is pure white, but the markings vary considerably. Some 

 have a very few large and very dark brown spots on them, all 

 situated on the larger end ; others have the larger end covered 

 with smaller brown spots, often forming a zone, many of the 

 markings appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell ; 

 others again have a few small markings equally distributed 

 all over the egg. One clutch Mr. H. G. Barnard took at 

 Somerset on October 28th, 1896, measures: A •88X'61, 

 B "84^ X "60 inch ; and another clutch I took on November 

 25th, 1896, in the Bloomfield River district, measures : 

 A •88X-65, B •87X-66 inch. 



