31-2 Whitlock, In the Stirling Ranges, W.A. [isfAmii 



no means an easy task. The first I obtained was situated in a 

 very small dwarf Banksia. The nest was suspended from the 

 foliage of the bush in a little recess, and I considered myself lucky 

 not to pass it by unobserved. It contained two fresh eggs. All 

 the other nests I found — some with eggs, others with newly- 

 hatched young — were very low down ; none higher than 3 feet. 

 All were very neatly made of green grasses, held together by 

 spiders' webs and lined with the same soft material. I marked 

 the situation of one I found building by fixing a piece of cotton 

 wool to a dry twig. This was promptly seized by the female and 

 used as lining for her nest. 



The eggs have been accurately described in Mr. A. J. Campbell's 

 work (see p. 401), but both eggs and nest appear to be remarkably 

 small for the size of the parent bird. Generally, I think, however, 

 the female is the smaller of the two sexes in this species.* I was 

 not able to obtain a full-grown nestling. I watched a pair I found 

 when newly hatched for more than a week, but their growth was 

 slow, and at that period they showed no signs of a wattle. When 

 I returned to the nest still later both were gone, and only a few 

 shreds of the nest remained. 



Of the other species of Ptilotis mentioned in Mr. Milligan's list — 

 viz., P. sonora and P. ornatus — I only encountered the latter. 

 I can thus confirm his note that P. sonora is absent from the north 

 side of the ranges. 



Graceful Honey-eater [Ptilotis ornatus). — This bird first appeared 

 in the white gums a few miles to the north of Mt. Barker. In the 

 Stirling Ranges it frequented the white gums, and, despite the 

 fact of some thousands of acres having been ringbarked around 

 Solomon's Well, the species still clings to the locality. It is a late 

 breeder, and it was not until I had found half a dozen nests of 

 the previous year that I got one with eggs. This was suspended 

 from the foliage of a Melaleuca at a height of about 10 feet. All 

 the nests I found were very neatly woven of green grass-stems, 

 but little else being used in their construction. The eggs are 

 very dark coloured — the shell of a brownish tint, sparsely dotted 

 with chocolate or purplish spots. A second nest of the present 

 season overhung the main road near Tenterden, but it was empty. 

 I observed individuals pairing as late as the beginning of 

 November. 



Referring to other Honey-eaters, I found the Meliornis group 

 represented by M. longirostris and M. mystacalis. In the ranges 

 proper the former was rare, and I only obtained one nest. As 

 usual, this was near water. In the swamps of the lower lands, I, 

 however, found the species more plentiful. 



M. mystacalis (Moustached Honey-eater) was by no means 

 uncommon around Donelly Peak. It was one of the first birds 

 to attract my attention on arrival in the ranges. A favourite 

 haunt was a very steep hillside thickly clothed with dwarf Banksia 



* This is usually the case in the genus Ptilotis, — Eds. 



