LIOHMEEA. 195 



generally built near the top of a small, weak, thinly branched bush 

 of about two or three feet in height, situated in a plantation of 

 seedling mahogany or other Eucalypti ; it is formed of small dried 

 sticks, grass, and narrow strips of soft bark, and is lined with 

 Zamia wool, but in those parts of the country where that plant is 

 not found, the soft buds of flowers, or the hairy flowering parts of 

 grasses, form the lining materials, and in the neighbourhood of 

 sheep-walks, wool collected from the scrub. The eggs are usually 

 two in number. They are nine lines long by seven lines broad, 

 and are usually of a dull reddish-buff, spotted very distinctly with 

 chestnut and reddish-brown, interspersed with obscure dashes 

 of purplish-grey." (Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., p. 491.) 



Ilab. Wide Bay District, New South Wales, West and South- 

 West Australia, (Ramsay.) 



Genus LICHMERA, Cabanis. 



.- 3 LICHMERA AUSTRALASIANA, SJmw. 



Tasmanlan Honey-eater. 

 Gould, Handbk. Birds Aust., Vol. i,, sp. 300, p. 493. 3X2L . ^Z- 



This bird is distributed over the whole of Tasmania and portions 

 of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. 

 In Gippsland the nest of this species is a round cup-shaped structure, 

 outwardly composed of fine strips of bark, lined inside with grasses 

 and the downy covering of the young fronds of the Tree 

 Fern, Dicksonia antarctica; it is generally placed in a low tree or 

 thick bush not far from the ground. Eggs three in number for a 

 sitting, of a light saturnine buff becoming darker towards the larger 

 end, where they are marked with spots of a deeper tint of the same 

 colour and chestnut-brown, with a few obsolete spots of dark lilac. 

 In some instances the markings are indistinct, and not weU 

 defined ; in others they form a well defined zone. Dimensions of 

 a set taken at South Gippsland, October 1879. Length (A) 0-76 

 X 0-58 inch ; (B) 074 x 0-58 inch ; (C) 0-75 x; 0-56 inch. 



