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reception of its nest, it differs from every other known member of

the genus ; for while they always nidify in the holes of the trees,

this species descends to the ground, and availing itself of any

little shelving bank, excavates a hole just large enough to admit

of the passage of its body, in a nearly horizontal direction to the

depth of two or three feet, at the end of which a chamber is

formed in which the nest is deposited. The nest itself is a neat

and beautifully built structure, formed of strips of the inner

bark of the Eucalypti, and lined with finer strips of the same or

similar materials ; it is of a spherical contour, about four inches in

diameter, with a small hole in the side for an entrance. The

chamber is generally somewhat higher than the mouth of the

hole, by which means the risk of its being inundated upon the

occurrence of rain is obviated. I have been fortunate enough to

discover many of the nests of this species, but they are most

difficult to detect, and are only to be found by watching for the

egress or ingress of the parent birds from or into ‘ its’ (their?)

hole or entrance, which is frequently formed in a part of the

bank overhung with herbage, or beneath the overhanging

roots of a tree. How so neat a structure as is the nest of the

Spotted Diamond-bird should be constructed at the end of a

hole where no light can possibly enter is beyond our compre¬

hension. The eggs ai'e four or five in number, rather round in

form, of a beautifully polished fleshy white, seven and a half

lines long by six and a half lines broad. The song of the

Spotted Diamond-bird is a rather harsh piping note of two

syllables often repeated.”


Mr. North writes — “ The Spotted Pardalote or Diamond-

bird is common in all parts of New South Wales, and plentifully

dispersed over the whole of the eastern and southern portions of

the continent.” Dr. Ramsay writes as follows — Dike the

Black-headed species (Z 5 . melanocephalus), it digs a small narrow

burrow in the side of a bank or mound of earth, the end of this

it enlarges into a spherical chamber of about four inches in

diameter, which it lines all round but more thickly at the bottom

with fine strips of stringy bark,(a) or, in the absence of this

material with grass. When the earth is carefully removed and

the nest taken out, it is found to be a very loose hollow ball,

slightly interwoven and having a small round entrance in the

side, opposite the opening of the burrow. Sometimes a small

hole in a log of wood is chosen, a crevice in an old wall, a niche

under a shelving rock, or the banks of water-holes or creeks, all



( a) The fibrous bark of the Eucalyptus capitella, E. macrorrhyncha, and other allied species.



