NESTS AND EGGS OF HONEY-EATERS. 591 
feathered friend on to a neighbouring branch, and before the gun 
was reloaded the bird had commenced operations again on the 
back of the bear. 
Mr. A. J. North informs us there is in the Dobroyde collection 
the nest and eggs of this species, together with the birds shot 
therefrom, obtained by Mr. J. Ramsay at Cardington, on the Bell 
River, November, 1867. These interesting specimens were, how- 
ever, kept dark, and were not described till the “ Catalogue of 
Nests and Eggs” appeared, 1889. 
November, 1895, Mr. C. C. Brittlebank found a pair of Brown- 
headed Honey-eaters building in the bed of the Myrniong Creek 
below his house. The birds first attracted his attention by pulling 
hair off the cattle. The same season Mr. G. E. Shepherd found 
two pretty nests near his nurseries, Somerville, the second nest 
being taken on the 3rd January. The following season he found 
other two nests, but they each only contained an egg of the 
Pallid Cuckoo. 
Breeding months, September to January. 
MELITHREPTUS MELANOCEPHALUS, Gould. 
‘“* Black-headed Honey-eater.” 
Figure.—Gould, Bds. of Australia, fol., vol. iv, pl. 75. 
Reference.—Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., vol. ix, p. 207. 
Previous Descriptions of Eggs.—Swan, Proc. Roy. Soc., Tas- 
mania (1885). Campbell, Victorian Naturalist (1886), North, 
Cat. Nests and Eggs, Austn. Mus., app. (1890). 
Geographical Distribution.—Tasmania, King Island, and 
Furneaux Group. 
Nest.—Cup-shaped, somewhat deep and pointed at the base, 
with thick bulging sides, composed of wool chiefly, moss, and 
spiders’ cocoons, with a few threads of stringy-bark round the 
rim ; inside warmly lined with fur and feathers ; usually suspended 
in the tender foliage at the extremity of a pendulous branch in a 
stringy-bark (Eucalypt) sapling or tree, where it is difficult to 
detect. Dimensions over all 3 inches by 4 inches in depth ; egg 
cavity 1} inches across by 1? inches deep. 
Lggs.—Clutch, 3 usually ; oval compressed towards one end ; 
texture fine ; surface, slightly glossy ; colour, delicate flesh tint, 
marked moderately, and chiefly about the apex, with well defined 
spots of rich reddish-brown, or chestnut and purplish-brown. 
Resemble those of J. validirostris, but are proportionately smaller. 
Dimensions of a clutch in parts-of an inch (1) °78 x ‘57; (2) ‘78 x 
O7; (3) ‘76 x ‘56. 
Observations.—This interesting Honey-eater, with its head 
entirely black, is peculiar to Tasmania and King Island, where 
specimens were procured by the expedition of the Field Naturalists’ 
