THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
every locality yet explored. I found it breeding on the lower Namoi, which 
proves that the interior of the country is inhabited by it as well as those 
portions between the ranges and the coast. Mr. White, of the Reedbeds 
near Adelaide, says : ‘ This little bird is sometimes rather numerous here. 
It appears to be wholly frugivorous, for all of those I have dissected had 
fruit in them ; it has no regular stomach, nor even an enlargement of the 
intestine, which averages above five inches and a half in length, and through 
which the food passes whole. It arrives in Adelaide about February, and 
stays but a short time. I have met with it very far north.’ ” 
Mr. L. G. Chandler has written me : “I watched a female building its 
beautiful purse-like nest. While collecting cobwebs the bird presented a 
curious appearance. It obtained the web off a dead tree and threw itself 
half backward while detaching it from a limb, at the same time stretching 
its neck in a peculiar manner. All the time it flew to and from its nest it 
uttered short single notes and I w r as able to trace it by this agency to the 
Eucalyptus sapling in which it was building. The nest was about twenty- 
five feet from the ground and fastened to a single twig at the extremity of the 
limb. The female alone was engaged in the work of construction and had 
apparently just commenced operations. The male was not noticed at any 
time in the vicinity. The bird worked rapidly, only staying at the nest from 
five to nine seconds, and returning within a minute to two minutes. Within 
three weeks I again visited the locality to secure the nest and eggs. Although 
I knew the limb the nest was built on, it was some time before I could see the 
nest itself, it looked like the work of a spider. This bird is fairly plentiful 
in the Olinda and Frankston districts, especially during the autumn months.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe has written also : “I was attracted by the actions of 
a female and after watching her a while found the nest just started. The 
female alone was doing the work, but we observed that each visit she made 
the male accompanied her but kept high up in the dead timber where Ins 
beautiful plumage was most conspicuous and he gave voice to most beautiful 
notes.” 
Mr. Tom Tregallas complains : “ Of all the bush birds the Mistletoe- 
Bird is perhaps the most harmful. The damage caused to our forests 
through the agency of this little harmless-looking bird is enormous, hi 
many parts whole areas of forest have succumbed to the malign influence 
of the parastic mistletoe, and the Government have been considering means 
for its destruction. How hard it will be to suppress the nuisance, let alone 
its extinction, may be gathered from the fact that many of the mistletoe 
infested trees are of the largest in the forests, and many indeed are almost 
unclimbable. Moreover, if the mistletoe were all cleared off the trees in one 
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