THE WOMBAT. 63 



yellowish ground colour with brown spots thickening some- 

 times into a ring at the larger end. The nest, too, resembles 

 the " greenie's," but is larger and more open. I have found 

 nests at the Dog Rocks and in the ti-tree scrub near Lake 

 Victoria, while a pair used to build in the Botanical Gardens 

 every August. 



The New Holland Honey-eater (Meliornis Nov. Holl.) is 

 a brilliantly plumaged bird, conspicuous by its yellow striped 

 wings and the black markings on its breast. The local youth 

 call this bird the " Wild Canary," probably from its plumage, 

 for the singing capacity of the New Holland Honey-eater is 

 limited to a series of discordant, grating chirps. Commencing 

 the work of nest building in August or late July, it may yet 

 be found laying as late as December and January. A nest 

 taken at Airey's Inlet in May, 1891, contained young birds, a 

 curious instance of breeding out of season. 



The nest is open and rather deep, outwardly built of grass 

 and twigs, and lined as a rule with seed down of one kind or 

 another, but sometimes with horsehair. It is placed in all 

 sorts of situations, but the bird uses some care in concealing 

 it : at Oueenscliff Road one looks for the nest in the acacia 

 hedges, while at the Anakies I have seen the nest among 

 bracken fern. The first time I took the eggs as a boy was in 

 August, 1890, at Spring Creek, in the prickly mimosa bushes 

 on the south bank ; there had been a flood, and the nests were 

 well hidden among debris brought into the bushes by the 

 stream. I never saw more than two eggs in the nest, though 

 writers credit the bird with three. The eggs are of the usual 

 honey-eater type. 



The genus Ptilotis supplies us with at least four species of 

 resident honey-eaters, of which the best known is the White 

 plumed Honey-eater, or " Greenie " (P. penicillata). The 

 " greenie's " eggs are amongst the earliest treasures of a Vic- 

 torian youngster's collection, and are never very hard to obtain. 

 The bird is not shy of the society of man, and will breed as 

 freely in town gardens as in the most secluded forest glade. 

 Any tree whose boughs droop and overhang will suit the 

 "greenie," so we find them nesting in all kinds of native trees 

 and in the English willow ; I remember seeing a nest built in 

 a projecting branch of a pine tree, but, generally speaking, the 

 " greenie " prefers a more " airy " situation for its hammock- 

 like home. The eggs are two or three in number. I have noticed 

 what are apparently separate varieties of this bird in the Botani- 

 cal Gardens ; the one makes a somewhat rough and thick nest, 

 laying two eggs of a whitish ground colour with red speckles, 

 while the nest of the other variety is frequently ' transparent,' 

 and neatly suspended from light twigs, the eggs in this case 

 numbering three and showing a much darker ground colour, 

 in some cases approaching a light red. I should like to know 



