THE WOMBAT. 6j 



in size and has not the yellow patch on the breast. I do not 

 think this bird breeds in the Geelong district, though last 

 summer I observed four or five " bush-wattlers " near the 

 Merrijig Creek on the Jan Juc Road. It is essentially a forest- 

 bird, and only visits the more open country in the winter. 

 During June and July it inhabits the timbered parts of the 

 Dog Rocks, near Batesford. The most likely locality for the 

 nest would be the Anakies, where the birds appears to remain 

 all the year round. The nest is like that of the wattle-bird 

 and is similarly situated. The eggs are two in number. 



The shyest of all the honey-eaters is the Fulvous-fronted 

 {Glyciphila fuivifrons). Where there are wide heaths with 

 low bushes and grass-trees and an occasional stunted gum, 

 its weird piping note may be heard, resembling a human being 

 whistling the first few bars of a tune in an undertone. In 

 the Geelong district the habitat of the fulvous-fronted honey- 

 eater is limited to the grass-tree plains and the patches of 

 stunted grass tree that occur here and there on the untimbered 

 parts of the eastern Otway. It may be met with near 

 Wensleydale, and then southwards wherever the country is 

 open, as far as the sea. But its most easily get-at-able haunt 

 is the Grass Tree Plain that lies to the north of Spring Creek, 

 outside the ring of the forest. No naturalist, so far as I am 

 aware, has taken the eggs in this district, but the bird is most 

 certainly not migratory, and in October, 1892, I came across 

 some young ones squatted on the ground under a bush about 

 eleven miles out along the Spring Creek Road. This would 

 point to September as the best month to look for the eggs, 

 and the low scrub on the Grass Tree Plain as the most likely 

 place. 



The Warty-faced Honey-eater (Meliphaga phrygia) is 

 very seldom met with near Geelong, and can only be regarded 

 as a chance visitor. In July, 1889, I noticed a pair of these 

 birds at Airey's Inlet, and again in November, 1S96, a single 

 specimen at the Dog Rocks. The bird is brilliantly marked 

 all over with black and pale yellow, is slightly smaller than a 

 minah, and more like a large specimen of the New Holland 

 honey-eater than anything else. In all probability it does not 

 breed in the district. 



Rarer still is the Graceful Honey-eater [Ptilotis omata), 

 which is very like the common greenie, but has light longitudinal 

 markings of grey on the breast, which will enable it to be dis- 

 tinguished from that bird, and also a yellow mark on the neck 

 in place of the silver-coloured "ring" of the greenie. It is 

 occasionally a visitor to us in the winter time, when it may be 

 seen clinging to sprays of pittosporum blossom at the tops of 

 the trees. It has not been known to remain to breed. There 

 is a good specimen of this bird in the Geelong museum. 



