132 



Chandler, Notes on the Mistletoe-Bird. 



r J'^niu 



Libt Oct 



My first experience of the nidification of the Mistletoe-Bird 

 was on 3rd November, 1908, in the Dandenong Ranges, 

 when in company with Mr. T. H. Tregellas. At the head 

 of a thickly-timbered gully we watched a female building 

 its beautiful purse-like nest. The nest — placed about 25 feet 

 from the ground, in a stringy-bark gum sapling — was 

 fastened to a single twig at the extremity of a bough. We 

 first noticed the bird obtaining spider-web from a species 

 of Acacia about 30 yards from the nest. When flying to and 

 from the nest it uttered the usual sharp, monosyllabic note, 



Youns; Mistletoe-Birds. 



FROM A PHOTO.- BY L. G CHANDLER, 



and we were thus able to trace it to the sapling in which it was 

 building. The female alone was engaged in the work of con- 

 struction, and had apparently just begun operations. The male 

 was not noticed in the vicinity at any time. The female worked 

 rapidly, staying at the nest for from five to nine seconds, and 

 returning within a two-minute limit. When constructed, I 

 again visited the locality to secure the nest and eggs. Un- 

 fortunately, while sawing off the limb the weight of leaves on 

 one side caused it to twist in my hands, and the eggs fell to the 

 ground. The nest was built of a fluffy substance, which grows 

 on a tree locally called the "flannel-tree" or " blanket-wood,' 



