NESTS AND EGGS OF HONEY-EATERS. 615 
eastern colonies, more particularly the coastal regions. It is very 
destructive to fruit, and is especially fond of grapes. Mr. North 
writes it is one of the most common species of the genus Ptilotis 
inhabiting the parks and gardens of Sydney. It is probably 
nowhere more numerous than in Victoria, where it may be heard 
(often at early morn) by its happy, chirrup-like song, near forest 
streams, or in scrub by river’s margin. 
The moss-bedecked nest and the typical red mottled eggs of 
the Yellow-faced Honey-eater are exceedingly beautiful. Many I 
have found, notably at Lilydale and Upper Werribee. At the 
latter locality I specially remember a very pretty one situated in 
a charming spot. It was suspended in an Acacia bush in blossom 
that hung over a moss-covered bank of a dry watercourse in a 
silent and sheltered nook of an Ironbark forest. (Date 11-10-90.) 
The first nest of this species I took was at Malvern, 1869. The 
eggs were the exceptional type, more distinctly spotted, like those 
of its White-plumed cousin (P. penicillata). The only other 
eggs I found of this type were obtained at Berwick, January, 
1880. 
Gould found a nest near the Liverpool Ranges, which was so 
thinly constructed that he could see through it. Such examples 
I have noticed myself, when the eggs could be seen from beneath. 
Mr. Hermann Lau’s observations of the Yellow-faced Honey- 
eater in southern Queensland are that it is usually found in the 
sea-coast scrubs, and places its nest in a small bush, 4 or 6 feet 
high. The nest consists of dry grass outside, and feathers and 
rootlets for lining ; lays two eggs.—Cunningham’s Gap, October, 
1876. 
The little Yellow-faced Honey-eater is not only lively and cheer- 
ful, but is persevering, as the following observations of Mr. and 
Mrs. De Laney attest. On the Wombat Creek, near Omeo, Vic- 
toria, a pair built in a shapely Blackwood (Acacia) in the garden. 
As the site was rather near the fruit trees, the nest and eggs were 
taken, but next day in the same tree a new nest was found nearly 
completed, both birds working at it, and before the week was out 
had eggs. Again the nest was robbed, and so on for six times, 
each clutch being the full complement of three eggs. However, 
the seventh time (there is luck in odd numbers, as the saying 
goes) the birds won by building a nest near the ground in a low 
bush about ten paces distant from the Blackwood tree, which was 
not discovered till it contained young. 
Breeding months, July to February. Mr. C. C. Brittlebank 
and I observed birds building a nest on the bank of the Lerder- 
derg River, 6 Feb, (1892). Mr. C. F. Belcher, in his pleasantly 
written article in the ‘‘ Wombat,” “ Notes on birds of the Geelong 
District,” mentions a pair of eggs he took at Lake Connewarre as 
late as the 12 Feb. (1890). 
