Vol. VI 



^^■"l From Magazt'neSj &c. 4^ 



From Magazines, &c. 



Egrets' Eggs. — At the August (1907) meeting of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club of Victoria Mr. A. H. E. Mattingley exhibited 

 the eggs of the Plumed Egret {Mesophoyx pliunifera) taken by 

 himself the previous season, and stated to be " previously 

 unrecorded for Australia."* 



At the September (1907) meeting of the Linnean Society of 

 New South Wales Mr. A. J. North sent for exhibition a set of 

 eggs of the Plumed Egret {MesopJioyx pluinifera) with a note 

 that the eggs " were taken by Mr. Septimus Robinson on 

 Buckiinguy station, N.S.W., on the 8th November, i893."t 



It is hardly just to oological students that such an up-to-date 

 authority as the Ornithologist of the Australian Museum should 

 suppress the description of rare and interesting eggs for fourteen 

 years ! 



Honey-eaters Plentiful. — During the present season 

 large numbers of Honey-eaters have visited the Adelaide plains, 

 and the Reedbeds district being a well-timbered and verdantly- 

 clothed locality, it is little wonder that these birds have made it 

 their chief rendezvous. The subject was brought under notice 

 by Mr. J. W. Mellor at a recent meeting of the South Australian 

 Ornithological Association held in the district. The largest of 

 the family, the Red Wattle-Bird {AcanihochcBra carimculata), are 

 extremely plentiful, and unusually energetic in eating fruit, 

 especially luscious peaches and well-ripened plums and figs, 

 their mode of devouring them being to insert their powerful bill 

 into the fruit, and by means of their large brush-like tongue 

 wiping and sucking the juice and flesh until nothing but the skin 

 and stone are left. Brush Wattle-Birds {A. mellivora) are also 

 present, but are not fruit-destroyers like the larger variety. The 

 White-bearded Honey-eater {Meliornis nov(2-Jiollandi(E), often 

 called the " Yellow-wing," is to be seen flitting in the thick 

 bushes, while in the higher trees the White-plumed Honey-eater 

 (JPtilotis penicillata), known to the small boy as the " Greenie," 

 may be seen, in company with several of the MelitJireptus family, 

 notably the Black-throated Honey-eater {MelitJireptus gularis), 

 often called the " Black-cap," the Lunulated Honey-eater 

 {M. lumdatus), and the Brown-headed Honey-eater (if. brevi- 

 rostris). The pretty Spinebill Honey-eater {AcmithorJiynchus 

 ienuirostris), with its needle-like curved bill, resembles the 

 handsome little Sun-Bird, as it flits and darts hither and thither, 

 thrusting its well-adapted bill into the long tubular flowers to 



* Victorian Naturalist, vol. xxiv,, p. 84 (Sept., 1907). See also Emu, vol. vii., 

 p. 91 (Oct., 1907). 



+ Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. W., vol. xx.xii., part 4, p. 629 (issued iith March, 1908). 



