INSESSORES. 539 



the whole of the southern portion of the continent, the bird 

 being equally as abundant in Southern and Western Austra- 

 lia as in New South Wales ; how far it may proceed to the 

 northward has not yet been ascertained ; it does not inhabit 

 Tasmania. I observed it to be very numerous in all the high 

 gum-trees around Adelaide, in most parts of the interior, and 

 in all the Ango^hora flats and forests of Eucalypti of New 

 South Wales. It is a showy active bird, constantly engaged 

 in flying from tree to tree and searching among the flowers 

 for its food, which consists of honey, insects, and occasionally 

 berries. In disposition it is generally shy and wary, but at 

 times is confident and bold : it is usually seen in pairs, and 

 the males are very pugnacious. Its habits and manners, in 

 fact, closely resemble those of the A: inauris, and, like that 

 bird, it utters with distended throat a harsh disagreeable 

 note. 



It breeds in September and October. The nests observed 

 by myself in the Upper Hunter district were placed on the 

 horizontal branches of the Angoplwrcd, and were of a large 

 rounded form, composed of small sticks, and lined with fine 

 grasses ; those found by Gilbert in Western Australia were 

 formed of dried sticks, without any kind of lining, and were 

 placed in the open bushes. The eggs are two or three in 

 number, one inch and three lines long by ten lines and a half 

 broad ; their ground-colour is reddish buff*, very thickly dotted 

 with distinct markings of deep chestnut, umber, and reddish 

 brown, interspersed with a number of indistinct marks of 

 blackish grey, which appear as if beneath the surface of the 

 shell : eggs taken in New South Wales are somewhat larger 

 than those from Western Australia, and have markings of a 

 blotched rather than of a dotted form, and principally at the 

 larger end. 



In size this bird is about equal to A. inauris, and the 

 sexes are only distinguished by the smaller size of the 

 female. 



