MONTHLY NOTES TAKEN IN SOUTH TASMANIA. 125 



is lead-coloured, and darker at the tip than at the base ; iris 

 yellow. Length, 12*25 in. 



May. 



16th. — (Four miles from Hobart.) Forest-inhabiting birds 

 are less common here than near the seventh milestone. Fan- 

 tailed Flycatchers, Thickheads, and Ground Thrushes (Geocichla 

 macrorhyncha) are not to be seen. Crescent Honey-eaters, on 

 the other hand, and Black-capped Honey- eaters and Spotted 

 Diamond Birds, are more plentiful than I found them to be 

 further from Hobart. 



June. 



27th. — Two Small-billed Cuckoo-Shrikes (Graucalus parvi- 

 rostris) passed by between the road and the river. I have seen 

 them but rarely in the vicinity of Hobart in the winter months, 

 and those that do appear are silent. One was seen on July 29th, 

 1900, in a garden in the city. The earliest date on which I have 

 heard their note is Sept. 18th (1892), on the south-eastern penin- 

 sula of Tasmania. When this Cuckoo- Shrike settles in a tree or 

 elsewhere it raises, with a jerky motion, one wing or both wings 

 alternately. It is the movement which, when made by a human 

 being, we call " shrugging the shoulders." With this bird it 

 may be an ancestral mode of salutation which has lost its 

 primitive meaning. 



July. 



21st. — A Yellow-throated Honey-eater (Ptilotis fiavigularis) 

 commences to utter its call, which resembles the clatter of a toy 

 rattle followed by a melodious cadence. 



August. 



7th. — A young male Blue Wren {Malurus gouldi) is seen in 

 the garden. Blue and blue-black body-feathers are visible amongst 

 the brown. 



8th. — Yellow-rumped Tits {Acanthiza chrysorrhoa) are sepa- 

 rating from the flocks, and beginning to build. 



9th. — A male Blue Wren is seen in complete adult plumage. 



12th. — Acacia dealbata in flower. 



15th. — A pair of Yellow-rumped Tits are building in a Pitto- 

 sporum about three feet from the ground, and are flying to and 

 fro for the greater part of the day with dried-up culms and 



