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whole of the islands of Torres Straits. Although thus generally distributed, it is nowhere 

 numerous, seldom more than a pair being seen together. Its habits resemble those of the 

 Ptilotes, with which it often associates, but still more closely to Myzomela obscura : like these 

 birds, it resorts to the flowering trees to feed upon the insects which frequent the blossoms, 

 especially those of a species of Sciadophyllum. This singular tree is furnished with numerous 

 spike-like racemes of small scarlet flowers, which attract numbers of insects, and thus furnish an 

 abundant supply of food to the present bird and many species of the Meliphagidce . Its note, 

 which is a sharp shrill cry, prolonged for about ten seconds, may be represented by '■Tsee-tsee- 

 tsee-tss-ss-ss-ss.' The male appears to be of a pugnacious disposition, as I have more than once 

 seen it drive away and pursue a visitor to the same tree ; perhaps, however, this disposition is 

 only exhibited during the breeding-season." He then mentions finding two of their nests at 

 Cape York on the 29th of November, one of which contained a young bird and an egg. "The 

 egg was pear-shaped, generally and equally mottled with obscure dirty brown on a greenish-grey 

 ground." A nest he took at Mount Ernest, Torres Straits, differed from those he found at Cape 

 York " in having over the entrance a projecting fringe-like hood composed of the panicles of a 

 delicate grass-like plant. It contained two young birds ;" and he " saw the mother visit them 

 twice with an interval of ten minutes between ; she glanced past like an arrow, perched on the 

 nest at once, clinging to the lower side of the entrance and looking round very watchfully 

 for a few seconds before feeding the young, after which she disappeared as suddenly as she had 

 arrived." 



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