104 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



same branch, all busily engaged in extracting their nectarine 

 food. It creeps about under and among the leaves with the 

 greatest facility, and, like the other members of the group, ap- 

 pears to be always associated in pairs. As might be expected 

 from the structure of its wing, which is admirably adapted for 

 rapid progression, it flies through the air with arrow-like swift- 

 ness. 



I succeeded in finding the breeding-places of this species, 

 and on the 11th of October 1839, procured four eggs from a 

 hole in a small branch of a lofty Eucalyptus, growing on the 

 flats at Yarrundi on the Upper Hunter. They were white 

 and of an oval form, nine lines and a half long by seven lines 

 and a half broad. 



The sexes are similar in plumage, and differ but little in size; 

 the female is, however, rather more diminutive than the male. 



Face deep red j back of the neck brown ; all the remainder 

 of the plumage grass-green; primaries, secondaries and greater 

 coverts black, margined externally with grass-green ; two 

 centre tail-feathers and outer webs of the remainder grass- 

 green ; the inner webs of the lateral feathers fine red at the 

 base, passing into greenish yellow towards the tip ; bill black; 

 cere and orbits dark olive-brown ; irides orange, surrounded 

 by a narrow line of yellow. 



