Vol. VIII." 



1909 _ 



Whitlock, Birds on the Pilbarra Goldfield. 185 



The nest is usually, but not always, suspended, and in several instances I 

 found nests in a solitary canjie bush of the most meagre and stunted dimen- 

 sions, and where one would never have thought of searching. Another I 

 found at the head of a sterile, and rocky gully in a flowering hibiscus plant 

 — the only shrub in the neighbourhood ! Another nest was in the fork of a 

 spreading but very open-branched shrub of considerable size, but the nest 

 was easily visible when once located. The female is not a close sitter, and 

 on the approach of danger is warned by the male, when she quietly slips off 

 the nest and joins him in his efforts to attract attention to himself and from 

 the locality of the nest. Two is the invariable number of eggs, which are 

 creamy-white in ground colour and sparingly spotted or clouded with 

 ferruginous blotches. The shells are very fragile, and it is quite impossible 

 to deal with highly incubated eggs. If the first brood is successful the parents 

 do not, I think, breed again the same season. 



The best way to find the nest is to go to some creek or gully where one or 

 two pairs are to be met with and to watch for an individual passing by with 

 building material in its beak. It is easy in these treeless gullies to follow 

 its flight with the eye, and eventually to locate the nest. During btiilding 

 operations the birds seem to lose all suspicion, and I have watched opera- 

 tions from a distance of only a very few feet. 



I find the intensity of the slriations of the breast varies somewhat. What 

 I take to be old males are the most marked. In the female they are 

 sometimes very faint, but I could still detect traces in the only pair of nestlings 

 I w^as able to examine. 



Yellow Miner {Mysaniha lutca). — Common on the upper Coongan and 

 de Grey, and found also near wells and patches of gums on the de Grey 

 plains. 



This Miner is equally as noisy and intrusive as others of the genus. 

 Prior to the breeding season it was flying about in small parties of seven or 

 eight. They frequented the gum-trees as a rule, but I not infrequently 

 found them amongst the yellow-flowering acacias of the more open gullies 

 in the ranges and flats. 



As the breeding season approached these parties broke up into pairs, 

 which in their turn retired to the secluded gullies to nest. Nearly all the 

 nests I found were in young eucalypts, or in saplings springing up from 

 stumps where the timber had been previously cut down. Some were in tall, 

 spreading branches, and once I found one in a small, scraggy, prickly 

 "canjie" bush. Not a few nests were at the extremities of slender branches 

 of some isolated gum, and quite inaccessible without the aid of special 

 apparatus. The nests were rather large, and somewhat untidy outwardly, 

 but the cup very neatly and warmly lined with kangaroo-hair, vegetable 

 down, or other soft material. Three was the usual number of eggs, but 

 four are occasionally laid ; sometimes only two. They resemble eggs of M. 

 obscura, but as a rule appear to be a little larger. The shells are rather 

 fragile. 



Mistletoe-Bird {Dicceum hiru?idinaceiim).—h. few on the Coongan and 

 de Grey ; an individual was seen in the mangroves at Condon. 



Chestnut-rumped VAKV>\l.OT:K{PardalofHsuropygialis). — Rare. I only 

 identified this Pardalote after some trouble, and in one particular creek. 

 There were two pairs present. I had the opportunity on one occasion of 

 shooting a pair, but refrained, as I wanted the nest. I did not have the 

 chance again, but I found the nest. It was similar in construction to that 

 of P. rubricaitis, and, like that, placed at the end of a tunnel some 20 inches 

 deep. The eggs were smaller and more glossy, however, than those of the 

 latter species. 



Red-browed Pardalote {Pardaloius {t-ubricatus) pallida* Campbell). — 



* See anic, p. 142. 



