636 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 
tree, sometimes attached to a bracken frond, in forest country. 
Dimensions over all, 3-4 inches by 2 inches in depth ; egg cavity, 
24 inches across by 14 inch deep. 
Lggs.—Clutch 2, rarely 3; long, oval, compressed towards one 
end; texture fine; surface slightly glossy ; beautiful rich flesh 
colour distinctly marked and spotted, more especially on the apex 
with rich chestnut or reddish-brown and dull purplish-brown. 
Dimensions of a clutch in parts of an inch: (1) °95 x 65 (2) ‘9 
x Os, 
Observations.—Capt. Grant, when in Western Port, Victoria, 
1801, wrote :—“ Among the birds noticed was the Bell-bird which 
has a note not unlike the tinkling of a bell, so that when a number 
of these birds are collected together, the noise they make is similar 
to that made by the bells of a team of horses.” 
‘* Softer than slumber, and sweeter than singing, 
The notes of the bell-birds are running and ringing.” —(Kendall.) 
Some romance and sentiment have been attached to the Bell- 
bird which is a type of Honey-eater wearing an esthetic yellowish- 
olive plumage, but has not the sprightly appearance of the Oreoica 
—the Bell-bird of the drier provinces of the interior. 
Bell Minah is a good vernacular name, because the bird is closely 
connected with the M/yzanthe,; moreover the name serves to dis- 
tinguish it from the other Bell-bird. Yet the Bell Minah is lively 
enough in its actions, and is for ever examining in a most inquisi- 
tive manner and picking at the green gum foliage in search of 
food. A querist writes:—‘ The great curiosity of the Bell-bird 
to my idea is ‘What does it feed upen?’ It picks continuously 
at the back of the gum leaves in the same trees from year to year, 
and although I have crept to within a few yards of them when 
feeding on the Apple and Yellow-box scrub, and plucked the leaves 
afterwards and examined them, I could discover nothing. — Per- 
haps it sucks a saccharine matter off the leaves, like Swainson’s 
Lorikeet ard the King Parrot do off the Stringybarks at certain 
seasons of the year. I should like someone who has studied the 
birds to kindly answer this.” 
The Bell Minah is very local, is gregarious to an extent, living 
in companies in certain restricted areas chiefly near water or 
humid swampy tracts in South Queensland, New South Wales, 
and Victoria. 
In the early days of the colony of Victoria Bell-birds used to 
exist in the timber along the course of the Werribee River and on 
the Yarra above Hawthorn. The birds were never destroyed, yet 
they have mysteriously disappeared—probably removed to other 
forest retreats—notably to Gippsland, where from trees and scrub 
in certain favoured localities in summer or winter, in wet weather 
or dry, from sunrise to sunset, may be heard the incessant tinkling 
