APPENDIX. 



393 



CINNYRIS FRENATA, Mailer. 

 Australian Sun-bird. 

 Gould, Handh. Eds. Austr., Vol. i., sp. 359, p. 584. 



Regarding the nidification of this species, Mr. Boyd under date 

 31st December, 1889, writes as follows : — " We have on the 

 estate three houses with verandahs, and in each verandah a pair 

 of Cinnyris, have built ; it is strange why this little bird should 

 seek man's society, one pair has bred for years in a verandah 

 nearly always occupied by three children and four kangaroo dogs. 

 One pair that for the last two seasons have built by the side of 

 the house, came round to the front door on the 23rd November 

 and selected a piece of rope that pulled up the bamboo verandah 

 blind, and began building. I at once nailed the rope so that it 

 could not be moved, and have since kept them under observation. 

 Their first proceeding was to cover the cord for about eighteen 

 inches with a layer of bark, cobweb, moss, ifec, until it was about 

 two inches in thickness ; on the 28th the bottom of the nest and 

 the little verandah were begun, and with the sides were almost 

 completed on the following day. Qn the 5th December I saw 

 the female in the nest, on the 17th I looked in the nest and saw 

 two eggs, on the 21st there were young ones.'' 



Mr. Boyd informs me in a subsequent letter that the young 

 birds left the nest on the 4th January, which was forty-three days 

 from the date of commencing the nest. 



This bird usually selects the twigs of a low shrub as a site to 

 attach its domed and hood-co\ered nest. 



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

 New Guinea. (Bamsay.) 



ORTHONYX SPALDINGI, Ramsay. 

 Spalding's Orthonyx. 

 " Ghowchilla." Aborigines of Cairns District. 

 Ramsay, Pioc, Zool. Soc, 1868, p. 386. 



This species has recently been met with rather freely dispersed 

 through the dense brushes of the coastal range, chiefly in the 



