THE SINGING HONEY-EATER. 
131 
Here we have another example of an Australian singing bird, 
for the melody of this creature is so loud, so full, and so rich in 
tone, that Mr. Gould compares it to that of the missel thrush. 
It is a soberly-coloured bird, though easily identified, the back 
being pale brown, the top of the head yellow, and a deep black 
patch passing over the eye and turning downwards along the 
side of the neck. It is a lively bird, as are all those feathered 
creatures which feed chiefly on insects, and even in mid- winter 
its melodious song may be heard in full vigour. 
There is a very common tree in Australia, popularly called 
the myall, known to scientific botanists as Acacia fiendula . The 
twigs of the tree are long and very slender, and the .leaves are 
so narrow and delicate that at a little distance they look more 
like grass-blades than the leaf of a tree. The reader may re- 
member that this is a characteristic of all drooping or 4 weeping’ 
trees, the leaf and the twig being slender in proportion to each 
other. The weeping birch- and the weeping wallow of our own 
country are good examples of this peculiarity. 
Thus, as both the leaves and the twigs of the myall are 
extraordinarily long and slender, the tree is chosen by many 
birds which build pensile nests, as will be seen in the course of 
this volume. It seems a tree that was made for the express 
purpose, because the long and slender twigs serve the double 
purpose of affording a firm attachment for the nest and sus- 
pending it where no ordinary foe can reach it, while the deli- 
cate leaves give their aid in fastening the nest to the twigs, and 
at the same time serve to conceal the structure from prying 
, eyes. 
Although the general structure of the nest is the same in all 
parts of the country, the materials necessarily differ. In New 
South Wales, the external shell of the nest is formed of very 
fine dry stalks, not thicker than twine, while the lining is com- 
posed of fibrous roots, matted together with spiders’ webs. It 
is fastened by the rim to the twigs, and as a few of the slender 
twigs occasionally are interwoven into the nest, it hangs quite 
securely. In Western Australia, the nest is made of grasses, 
which, although green when first woven, become white and 
