SCALY-BREASTED LORIKEET. 
trees : they make a loud screeching noise while feeding in a well-flowered 
tree, as a great many of them congregate together and feed in a flock.” 
Gould simply stated : “ To give any detailed account of its habits and 
mode of life would be merely repeating what I have said respecting the 
Trichoglossus multicolor , with which it frequently associates and even feeds 
on the same branch; it is, however, not so numerous as that species, nor 
so generally distributed over the face of the country. The brushes near the 
coast, studded here and there with enormous gums, towering high above 
every other tree by which they are surrounded, are the localities especially 
resorted to by it. Its principal food is honey, gathered from the cups of the 
newly expanded blossoms of the Eucalypti, upon which it feeds to such an 
excess, that on suspending a fresh-shot specimen by the toes, a large tea- 
spoonful of liquid honey will flow from the mouth.” 
The following notes are taken from the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, 
Yol. III., and will show how little is known of the economy of this species. 
Mr. H. G. Barnard’s notes from Duaringa, Queensland, read : “ Trichoglossus 
chlorolepidotus almost invariably breeds when the Swamp Gums {Eucalyptus) 
are in flower. In 1907 they bred plentifully: the following are the dates 
of three sets taken in that year — 27th July, 3rd and 6th August. In 1908, 
owing to the great amount of rain in March, the Gums flowered earlier than 
usual, and on my return from a trip to Brisbane, I examined several nests 
in the early part of August, but found only young birds. The weather had 
then set in dry, and breeding stopped. In a good season I have taken fresh 
eggs up till the end of November. These birds breed in the holes in the 
limbs of Gum trees, generally selecting a place from which a thin dead branch 
has fallen, and chip away the decayed wood till they reach the hollow in 
the centre of the limb ; the eggs, two in number, are placed on the soft 
decayed wood at the bottom of the hole, which is usually about a foot from 
the entrance. A pair which I had under observation close to the house were 
six weeks eating their way into a limb, until the eggs, two in number, were 
deposited. The nesting-places are generally very high, the heights of the 
three nests taken being 69, 72 and 77 feet.” 
Mr. Geo. Savidge’s observations follow : “ The Scaly -breasted Lorikeet 
is plentifully dispersed all through the Clarence River District, and it prefers 
the cultivated fields and open flat country. The nesting-season usually 
commences the first week in June, and continues till the end of February, 
the earliest set taken by me was on the 23rd May. By the third week in 
June all have eggs or young birds ; the nest is placed in a hole or the bole 
of a tree, sometimes as far as six feet from the entrance, and the height 
from the ground varies from nine to sixty feet. Two eggs are always laid 
35 
