PLATE "VIII. 



GENUS PARDALOTUS (Vieillot). 



~j~N every part of Australia at least one member of this group is found. 



PARDALOTUS PUNCTATUS (Temm.) 



SPOTTED DIAMOND-BIRD. 



TASMANIA and the southern portion of Australia constitute the habitat of this bird, which frequents 

 both the forests of the lofty Eucalypti and the dense thickets, and is not infrequently found in 

 gardens and shrubberies in the close vicinity of houses. 



It displays great activity among the foliage, flitting about in search of insects. 



Its mode of nidification is very remarkable. It chooses a little bank, in which it excavates a 

 horizontal passage for about two or three feet, and then makes a small chamber, in which the nest is 

 constructed. The nest is spherical in form, with a hole in the side for entrance. It is made of narrow 

 strips of bark, and lined with any soft material which can be procured. The colour of the eggs, which 

 are four or five in number, is light buffy-white. In length they are seven and a-half lines, and in 

 breadth, six and a-half lines. 



The male has the head and back of the neck, black, each feather having a spot 'of white near 

 the tip ; ear-coverts and sides of neck, grey ; back, light olive-brown ; rump, rufous-brown ; upper tail- 

 coverts, red ; throat, chest, and under tail-coverts, yellow, inclining to orange ; flanks and abdomen, 

 tawny; irides, grey; bill, black; legs and feet, brown. 



The female is rather duller in colouring, and is devoid of the yellow on the chest. 



Habitats : New South Wales, Victoria, South. Australia. Western Australia, and Tasmania. 



PARDALOTUS RUBRICATUS (Gould). 



RED-LORED DIA MOND- BIRD. 



AMONG the avifauna of the interior of Australia, this is one of the most beautiful, but on account 

 of the thick brushes which it inhabits, great difficulty has been experienced in obtaining authentic 

 information of its habits. With the exception, however, that its nest is constructed in a hole in the 

 trunk of a tree, there appears to be a very slight difference between its mode of living and that of 

 Pardalotus Puncta t us. 



