200



Mr. H. Stuart Dove,



A beautiful example of the pensile type of nest was found

while Mr. H. C. Thompson and myself were exploring the slopes of

Mount Arthur, in North-East Tasmania. There, in the head of a

dogwood tree ( Pomaderris copetala, Lab.), 30 ft. from the ground,

was found the nest of a pair of Strong-hilled Honey-eaters (M. validi-

rostris), a species peculiar to Tasmania and its adjacent islands.

The nest was hanging from dogwood twigs, to which it was hound

by fine strips of stringybark. It was formed entirely of the same

bark, and lined with soft brown material from the crown of the

Dicksonia tree-fern, which grows in those forests. The nest con¬

tained three beautiful eggs of a pinkish tint, spotted with dark red,

mostly at the larger end. The ground colour of one egg was much

browner than that of the others. Curiously enough, a pair of the

shade-loving Pink-breasted Robins ( Erythrodryas rhodinogaster ) had

built in a fork of the same tree, 13 ft. from the ground, a very

beautiful home of green moss, covered on the outside with grey

lichens.


The other pensile nest-builder, called the Black-headed Honey-

eater, also peculiar to our island and adjacent islets, generally uses

wool as material, with some moss and spider-cocoons ; they may

line with fur or with feathers. The nest is suspended among the

pendulous twigs at the extremity of a gum-branch—the white gum

(Eucalyptus viminalis ) being the one usually selected—and is so

buffeted by the winds that it is often topsy-turvy, hut the brave

little mother bird “ sits tight,” so that the eggs or young are not

thrown out. A nest of this species found in North-West Tasmania

by Dr. Holden was composed of green moss and spiders’ web, the

lining being of fluffy seeds. The dimensions of one nest were:

Egg cavity—width, If in.; depth, If in. ; outside dimensions—

depth, 4 ins. ; width, 3 in. Both this species and the Strong¬

billed Honey-eater usually lay three eggs to a clutch. The eggs are

of a delicate flesh tint, marked (chiefly about the apex) with rich

reddish-brown spots; those of the latter are somewhat the larger,

about ‘88 by -66, while an average egg of the Black-headed Honey-

eater measures '78 by *57.


Of those structures which are suspended among vegetation,

one of the best examples is that of the Reed-Warbler ( Acrocephalus



