ZOSTEEOPS. 233 



A pair in the Macleayan Museum Collection, taken on the 

 Endeavour River, Queensland, give the following measurements : — 

 length (A) 07 x 0-43 inch ; (B) 0-67 x 0-43 inch. 



Hah. Cape York, Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, South Coast 

 New Guinea. (Ramsay.) 



Sub-Family ZOSTEROPIN^. 

 Genus ZOSTEROPS, Vigors and Horsfield. 



.3-*. ZOSTEROPS C^RULESCENS, Latham. 

 G-rey-backed Zosterops. 

 Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust , Vol. i., sp. 360, p. 587. 



This bird is universally dispersed' over the eastern and southern 

 portions of the continent of Australia, and the whole of Tasmania, 

 A nest of this species in the Australian Museum Collection, taken 

 at Dobroyde iii September 1860, is a round cup-shaped structure, 

 outwardly composed of bark fibre, dried grasses, and mosses, 

 and neatly lined inside with fine fibrous roots and grasses ; 

 it measures exteriorly three inches in diameter, by one inch 

 and three-quarters in depth ; internal diameter two inches, 

 by one inch and three-eighths in depth. The nest of this species 

 is attached by the rim to the thin twigs of a tree and is usually 

 placed about six or seven feet from the ground, the top of a 

 Melaleuca or Leptospermum being especially a favourite situation 

 for it, although I have found it in a number of different trees, both 

 native and acclimatized, when it resorts to our public gardens to 

 breed. Eggs three or four in number for a sitting of a uniform pale 

 blue. Dimensions of a set in the Australian Museum Collection, 

 taken with the above described nest : — length (A) 0-65 x 0-49 

 inch ; (B) 0-67 x 0-47 inch ; (C) 0-64 x 0-5 inch ; (D) 0-65 x 

 0-47 inch. 



The breeding season of this species commences in September 

 and continues during the four following months. I have several 



