3i8 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
together like Love-birds, the male warbling a quiet 
but varied little song as if under his breath. 
When feeding, the birds are in companies of eight 
to ten ; but they travel sometimes in large flocks num- 
bering many hundreds. 
The breeding-season extends from October to 
January, and is rather later in the coast scrubs than in 
inland orchards. The nest is a delicate cup of fine 
grasses sometimes ornamented with moss, and always 
lined with more or less horse-hair ; it is suspended 
in a thin horizontal fork at a height averaging 5 feet 
from the ground. At Boat Creek, Airey's Inlet, where 
the birds breed in great numbers in early January, 
the nest is built in a ti-tree. In orchards any kind 
of fruit tree, but preferably a pear, is chosen. I have 
seen nests in elm trees in Geelong streets. 
The eggs are three or four in number, of a pale 
greenish blue which gives them a place among the 
most beautifully coloured of our native birds' eggs. 
SWALLOW DICTUM OR MISTLETOE- 
BIRD 
Austrodicceum hirundinaceum hirundinaceum 
I CANNOT ascertain that this strange and beautiful 
little species was ever plentiful in our district. Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel Garrard tells me that he remembers 
finding, as a boy, a nest in the vicinity of the Dog 
Rocks where now the bird is but an occasional au- 
tumnal visitor. 
