94 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



confined to the forests composed of those trees, that I do not 

 recollect to have met with it in any other. However graphi- 

 cally it might be described, I scarcely believe it possible to 

 convey an idea of the appearance of a forest of flowering gums 

 tenanted by Trichoglossi ; three or four species being frequently 

 seen on the same tree, and often simultaneously attacking the 

 pendant blossoms of the same branch. The incessant din 

 produced by their thousand voices, and the screaming notes 

 they emit when a flock of either species simultaneously leave 

 the trees for some other part of the forest, is not easily de- 

 scribed, and must be seen and heard to be fully comprehended. 

 So intent are they for some time after sunrise upon extracting 

 their honey-food, that they are not easily alarmed or made to quit 

 the trees upon which they are feeding. The report of a gun 

 discharged immediately beneath them has no other eff'ect than 

 -^. to elicit an extra scream, or cause them to move to a neigh- 

 bouring branch, where they again recommence feeding with 

 avidity, creeping among the leaves and clinging beneath the 

 branches in every variety of position. During one of my 

 morning rambles in the brushes of the Hunter, I came 

 suddenly upon an immense Eucalyptus, which was at least 

 two hundred feet high. The blossoms of this noble tree had 

 attracted hundreds of birds, both Parrots and Honey-suckers ; 

 and from a single branch I killed the four species of the former 

 inhabiting the district, viz. Triclioglossus multicolor and T. cMo- 

 rolepidotus, Glossopsitta australis, and G. pusilla. I mention 

 this fact in proof of the perfect harmony existing between 

 these species while feeding ; a night's rest, however, and the 

 taming effect of hunger doubtless contributed much to this 

 harmonious feeling, as I observed that at other periods of the 

 day they were not so friendly. 



Although the T. multicolor is so numerous in New South 

 Wales, I did not succeed in procuring its eggs ; the natives 

 informed me that they are two in number, and that they are 

 deposited in the holes of the largest Eucalypti, the pmod of 

 incubation being from September to January. 



