SWALLOW DICiEUM 319 
In the male the upper surface is glossy black, throat 
and breast scarlet, and belly white with a black central 
patch ; while the female is duller-coloured, and has 
the throat and centre of abdomen buff. 
The species has been called Flower-pecker and 
Mistletoe-bird, the latter because of its fondness for 
the seeds of the forest mistletoe ; but it also eats 
insects. Its actions in a tree, as it creeps swiftly about 
the branchlets, are restless, reminding one of the Tree- 
runner ; its swallow-like flight is high, but sometimes 
extends no farther than to the next suitable tree. The 
bird also bears some resemblance to a small Swallow 
in form and colouring. 
Whenever I have seen this bird in the Geelong 
district, and that is not often, it has been " on the 
move." 
The nest is small, purse-like, very compact, soft, 
usually white in colour, owing to its composition of 
spiders' cocoons and vegetable down. It has a narrow 
side entrance, and is suspended from a thin branch of 
a gum or wattle at a height of 10 or 15 feet from the 
ground. The three eggs are pure white. 
It is to my mind improbable that the numbers of 
the Dicaeum in this district can ever have been so great 
as it would be necessary to believe they were if the 
bird is to be regarded as the sole cause of the spread 
of the mistletoe. That the seed is spread by birds 
of one sort or another or of many sorts is clear, as also 
it is that the species concerned are not birds which 
have a gizzard, seeing that the grinding process which 
