12 THE WOMBAT. 



of " Pretty Dicks " The former I found breeding at Tar- 

 nagulla on ioth September, 1892, and throughout that and 

 the following month. I have also taken nests of P. auricomis 

 in October, but was too early for eggs. The Graceful 

 usually builds in the tops of the saplings at from 15 to 20 ft., 

 whilst P. auricomis nearly always chooses a situation nearer 

 the ground, sometimes sheltered, at others quite exposed. 

 One of the handsomest of this family, the Warty-faced, is to 

 be found in these scrubs every year. The Miner (Manorhina 

 garrula) is common in the more open country, and as noisy as 

 elsewhere. The Wattle-bird, spiny-cheeked, and Blue-faced 

 Entomyza were also seen ; this latter bird cannot but remind 

 one of the similarity it bears in colouration to that genus of 

 small honey-eaters, (Melithreptus), which in this district is 

 represented by two species, M. lunulatus and M. brevirostris 

 found throughout the scrub covered parts. The Entomyza 

 was only noted on two or three occasions. In recent classifi- 

 cations the genus Melithreptus has heen classed with Zosterops, 

 separating it from the true honey-eaters. 



The Friar Bird {Philemon corniculatus) was frequently 

 met with haunting the branches of the blossoming gum trees. 

 Numbers of these birds, in company with the yellow-throated 

 species (P. citreogularis), warty-faced, white-plumed, and 

 graceful honey-eaters were found feeding on the gums along 

 the Campaspe near Elmore in September last year. The 

 yellow throated friar bird is smaller and decidedly more active 

 than its congener ; the female only bears the distinctive 

 colouring which gives it its specific title. I have no doubt 

 that this bird breeds in the district as I killed a young bird 

 on Pyramid Hill, in 1892, which had not long left the nest. 



The little Dicaeum was found feeding, as is its wont, on the 

 berries of the Loranthus growing on the wattles in the public 

 park at Echuca during Easter week 1893. Mr- A. J. Camp- 

 bell, the well-known naturalist, happening to be in that town 

 at the time, we had many little excursions together in the 

 immediate neighbourhood. This little bird's nest was found 

 by Mr. Campbell last year in the Werribee Gorge. I myself 

 have found the nest many years ago in Queensland, but never 

 in this colony ; there it was built of a white cottony substance 

 from the seed vessels of a small annual, which gave it a very 

 beautiful appearance. The habits of the bird there were the 

 same as down here ; it is, as most people know, the principal 

 if not the sole, agent in the propagation of the different kinds 

 of mistletoe ; the berries of this plant form its principal food, 

 and the seeds are passed through the body whole, and being 

 very sticky, adhere to any bough that they are dropped upon 

 where they soon germinate. There are many beautiful 

 species of this genus in India and the Malay Archipelago. 



The magpies or crow-shrikes are here mainly represented 

 by the black backed species, which is generally found north 



