62 THE WOMBAT. 



into pairs for breeding purposes and retire into the bush. The 

 eggs may be found from August till December throughout the 

 Queenscliff Road bush, and at Spring Creek and the Dog Rocks. 

 A pair used to breed yearly in the Botanical Gardens. The 

 nest is shallower than the minah's, and one misses the woollen 

 ornamentation of the exterior which the latter bird seems to 

 regard as necessary for its comfort. The wattle bird's eggs 

 are invariably two in number in this district, so far as my 

 experience goes, though three have been found elsewhere. 

 The ground colour is a warm reddish-buff, which grows deeper 

 towards the larger end — in fact the eggs are typical honey- 

 eater's. The spots are dark brown with an undershow of 

 lilac here and there. Unfortunately these eggs fade a great 

 deal in one's collection box. It is a good plan, in connection 

 with these and other eggs that tend to lose their colour, to 

 smear them immediately after blowing with some of the white ; 

 this, while possibly imparting a rather forced looking gloss to 

 the shell, at any rate preserves the original shading for good. 

 It will be found worth trying, and comes less expensive than 

 varnish. 



The wattle bird builds in much the same situations as the 

 minah, but never very low down. I do not remember ever having 

 seen a nest that you could reach from the ground. The ends 

 of the boughs of a fairly tall gum or wattle sapling is the best 

 place to look for the nest, and you rarely find it in a solitary 

 tree, but generally in one of a clump. At Queenscliff Road 

 the honeysuckle — Banksia — is the favoured tree ; wattle 

 plantations the bird is very fond of, such as there are at the 

 foot of the You Yangs. 



The Spiny-cheeked Honey-eater is a shyer and rarer bird. 

 In the winter months, when there is a good deal of eucalyptus 

 blossom about, this honey-eater may be noticed in the scrub 

 at the Dog Rocks or Gillies, along with many other species 

 of the same family, and distinct from the rest by its melodious 

 song, warbled, as one might say, under the bird's breath. In 

 appearance it somewhat resembles the wattle bird, but is 

 smaller and has a good deal of white about it. It is erroneously 

 known in this district as the " brush-wattler," but this bird is 

 really a distinct species. The spiny-cheeked honey-eater 

 breeds sparingly with us during the months of August, Sept- 

 ember, and October, making a pensile nest of fine grasses, 

 cupshaped, and lined with feathers or hair ; it is built usually 

 in a sheoak or " wild cherry " tree. On October 30th, 1891, 

 I took a nest of this species in the ti-tree scrub that edges the 

 beach near Point Lonsdale ; though late in the season for 

 this bird, the nest contained a pair of fresh eggs. The nest 

 was built about twelve feet from the ground. The eggs are 

 always two in number and are very like large specimens of 

 those of the " greenie " (Ptilotis penicillata ), being, of a 



