596 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
caught beneath the bushes, helpless. The same sometimes applies to 
the Long-billed Honey-eater or ‘‘ Yellow-wing” as it is locally called. 
History repeats itself. Gould recorded regarding this Honey- 
eater: “The site generally chosen for its nest, as observed at the 
Swan River, is a low bush or scrubby plant, in which it is often 
placed near the ground.” I had frequently observed this bird in 
Victoria, and on the adjacent islands in Bass Straits without 
finding its nest, but it was just forty-one years after Gould wrote 
his remarks, I was strolling over the limestone ridges of the Lower 
Swan, when I flushed a Tawny-crowned Honey-eater and found 
my first nest of this wild species in such a position as is exactly 
described by Gould (7.e., Gilbert). The nest contained two eggs, 
partly incubated. Date, 19th November, 1889. 
The month previous, when in the Tor Bay district, near Albany, 
shepherd brought me a nest, also with two eggs. 
Early in the season of 1896, on the heathy grounds near 
Cheltenham, Vic., a pair of Tawny-crowned Honey-eaters was 
observed uttering distressing cries over their nest in a bush about 
15 inches from the ground. The cause of the disturbance was a 
snake, which had extracted one of the young from the nest and 
was about to swallow it. The youthful collectors who were 
attracted to the spot by the birds’ calls had nothing to battle the 
snake with except the handle of a butterfly net. Wath this they 
struck the reptile, which quickly made its escape. 
In a communication to me Mr. G. K. Hinsby writes :—“ Re 
Glycyphila fulvifrons, I note that Gould mentions it as only 
inhabiting the northern parts of Tasmania. I obtained birds and 
eggs on the extreme south end of Bruin Island, near Cloudy Bay 
Lagoon (Dec., 1884). The nest was cup-shaped, made of She-oak 
(Casuarina) needles, lined with wool and cow’s hair, I never saw 
a nest look so strange, not a foot from the ground, in one of the 
stunted Bottle-brush shrubs. I saw the male bird perched on a 
dead branch of a small gum-tree pouring forth its peculiar note. 
As I approached it flew, but I stopped it before it had gone far, 
and the shot flushed the female from her nest close by, which I 
found without difficulty. The eggs (two) were slightly incubated 
and were almost white, with a faint pinkish shade, and spotted 
with a few purplish black spots.” 
Breeding months, August to December or January. 
}LYCYPHILA ALBIFRONS, Gould. 
“‘ White-fronted Honey-eater.” 
Figure.—Gould, Bds. of Australia, fol., vol. iv, pl. 29. 
Reference.—Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., vol. ix, p. 211. 
Previous Descriptions of Eggs.—Gould, Bds. of Austr. (1848), 
also Hdbk., vol. i, p. 498 (1865); North, Cat. Nests and Eggs, 
Austn. Mus., p. 197 (1889). 
