THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
when eucalypts are in flower. Comes to the place yet to devour fruit. Seems 
to know when it is fit.” 
G. F. Hill confirmed this of the Ararat District (ibid., p. 21) : “ A 
common bird, especially when the eucalypts are in blossom. The hollows 
selected for nesting are usually inaccessible, and for this reason the eggs are 
not often taken.” 
From Cobbora, New South Wales, the same account is given by Thos. 
P. Austin (ibid., p. 75), joining with the above the Little Lorikeet, writing: “ I 
think it best to mention these two together, because they always arrive here 
about the same time, and may be found feeding together. They arrive here 
after the nesting season in tremendous flocks, and their screeching notes are 
not altogether pleasant music as they fly from the tree-tops in thousands.” 
Writing about the birds of Mallacoota, Victoria, in the Emu, Vol. XIV., 
p. 138, 1915, Capt. S. A. White observes : “ Numbers of these birds were 
found feeding on the young shoots and buds of the Angophora trees. Many 
of the specimens handled had a deep, bright blue frontal band ; no doubt 
this is due to age.” 
Gould’s observations may be repeated : “ It is a noisy species, and with 
its screeching note keeps up a perpetual din around the trees in which it is 
located. During its search for honey it creeps among the leaves and smaller 
branches in the most extraordinary manner, hanging and clinging about 
them in every possible variety of position. It is so excessively tame that 
it is very difficult to drive it from the trees, or even from any particular 
branch. Although usually associated in flocks, it appears to be mated in 
pairs, which at all times keep together during flight, and settle side by side 
when the heat of the sun prompts them to shelter themselves under the shade 
of the more redundantly leaved branches.” 
In the Austr. Mus. Spec. Cat., No. 1, Vol. III., there are many notes 
about this species, and I here incorporate such as deal more particularly with 
habits, as otherwise not a lot has been recorded about these. North’s own 
notes are really valuable : “Its appearance (near Sydney) is greatly governed 
by the food supply, and in some seasons it is far more abundant than others, 
and it is more common in the western suburbs of Sydney than it is close to 
the coast. When living at Dobroyde, Ashfield, in 1889, large flocks used to 
fly over from February to the middle of April, fairly high in the air, resembling 
in form a wave or the spray left on a long beach by a receding wave. These 
flocks were about three hundred yards in width, and three or four birds deep, 
and were travelling from the south-west to the north-east, and were probably 
a quarter of a mile apart. They could be seen at almost any time of the day, 
from early morning until nearly sunset. Numbers of these birds were allured 
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