338 BIRDS OF THE DISTRICT OF GEELONG 
the year round. At Torquay, however, I find that 
it comes in winter to the garden of my cottage, about 
three hundred yards from the sea, in order to get 
honey from the yellow brush-like flowers of that kind 
of acacia which is best known by the offensive smell 
of its seeds when crushed. Similarly at Airey's the 
bird is known to travel some half-mile inland to feed 
on the ironbarks which bloom in July. At the Sheep- 
wash on the Lower Barwon I have noted it at Easter- 
time among the melaleucas, and on more than one 
occasion I have seen it in Geelong, whither it must 
have travelled from the south coast. 
These instances are exceptional, and at ordinary 
times, though to meet with it you have but to visit 
any clump of ti-tree on the coast between Barwon 
Heads and Lome, you will not find it inland. Curi- 
ously enough, I have never seen the Singing Honey- 
eater on the eastern side of Barwon Heads, even at 
Queenscliff, where there appears to be abundance of 
suitable cover. 
It is heavy in flight, compared with other Honey- 
eaters, and yet goes jerkily : it is fond of perching 
on the top of some ti-tree and thence delivering its 
rolling notes. 
In the summer it lives largely upon insects. 
The nesting-season lasts from mid-October to the 
end of January, and it is my opinion that two broods 
are reared. 
It is a most conservative bird as to nesting, for it 
builds year after year almost in the same spot. I 
