164 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



The Yellow-faced Honey-eater, Ptilotis chrysops, the White- 

 plumed Honey-eater, P. penicillata, and the Silver-eye, Zosterops 

 coerulescens, suspend their nests from slender branchlets of Musk 

 or Hazel overhanging the stream, and in the low tangled under- 

 growth the White-bearded Honey-eater, Meliornis novce-hollandice, 

 rears its young. Many nests of the White-throated Thickhead, 

 Pachycephala gutturalis, and the Rufous-breasted Thickhead, 

 P. riifiventris, were found in the Tea-tree (Melaleuca) and Hazel 

 thickets, the former being the commoner species. To procure 

 the photograph of the Rufous-breasted Thickhead and young 

 we were obliged to carefully screen the camera with boughs, 

 while the operator lay concealed at some distance, and worked 

 the shutter by means of a length of rubber tubing. The parent 

 birds were very suspicious, the young were also restless, and it 

 was only after several hours' patient waiting that a successful 

 negative resulted. The Grey Shrike-Thrush, Gollyriocincla 

 harmonica, breeds in the hollow stumps along the course of 

 the creek. The Mountain Thrush, Geocichla lunulata, prefers 

 a Musk tree or Blackwood in the dense, humid gullies, where 

 it builds a large and beautiful nest of fine shreds of bark, 

 covered externally with long strands of brilliant green moss. 

 One nest we saw had been built on the remains of two former 

 ones. 



The nesting burrows of several pairs of the Spotted Pardalote, 

 Pardalotus punctatus, were excavated in the sloping banks of the 

 creek. The usual complement of eggs is four, but on opening up 

 one of the tunnels we found five nesdings. Three of these were 

 dead, being half-eaten by the larvae of some species of dipterous 

 fly of the genus Calliphora. A few pupae were secured for future 

 observation, and have since hatched out. The flies are exhibited 

 to-night. The young Pardalotes early assume the beautiful 

 spotted plumage of the adult bird, as is well shown in our photo- 

 graph of a brood about four weeks old. 



Four species of cuckoo are abundant in the Olinda Valley. 

 The Pallid Cuckoo, Cuculus pallidus, often deposits its salmon- 

 tinted egg in the open nest of the Yellow-faced Honey-eater, 

 P. chrysops. The Fan-tailed Cuckoo, Cacomantis flabelliformis, 

 the Bronze Cuckoo, Ghalcococcyx plagosiis, and the Narrow- 

 billed Bronze Cuckoo, C. basalis, select the domed nests of the 

 Superb Warbler, Malurus superbus, and the various species of 

 Acanthiza. 



The Bronze Cuckoo, 0. plagosus, shows a preference for the 

 nest of the Brown Tit, A. pusilla, and we made some observations 

 on the nestlings while securing a series of pictures. Considerable 

 difficulty was experienced in obtaining a photograph of the young 

 Bronze Cuckoo being fed by the foster-parent, as the cuckoo had 

 just ventured from the nest, and was intent on exploring its 



