THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
primaries black tipped white, throat pale buff, sides of chest and abdomen 
very pale buff, feet bluish-grey, irides brown.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe also wrote : “ Nests are found from early September 
to January, so probably two broods are reared. The burrows are drilled 
horizontally and vary from one to tliree feet long. The call sounds like 
‘ Twitt-lem,’ the first note high and the second considerably lower and with 
a perceptible pause between. I have often been amused whilst watching 
this bird utter its call to see it stand erect to utter the first note and crouch 
on the limb to emit the next. Unless you are looking at the bird it is difficult 
to tell whence the sound comes. Frequently the first note seems to come 
from one direction, the second from another. Both sexes help to dig the 
burrow and feed the young, the female alone incubating the eggs.” 
Mr. Tom Carter’s note reads : “ Red-rumped Pardalotes (P. punctatus) 
are very numerous in Karri country ( Eucalyptus diversicolor) in the extreme 
south-west corner of West Australia, -where they are known by the settlers 
as ‘ head-ache ’ birds, as they say the continual iteration by thousands of 
these birds of their monotonous note ‘ Slee-p ba-bee ’ causes headache to the 
listeners. Pseudogerygone culicivora utters a very similar song. Pardalotus 
punctatus is not uncommon in Blue Gums (Eucalyptus megacarpa) around 
Albany. Does not seem to like Jarrah country. Never seen about Broome 
Hill, but once shot two in Marlock scrub 40 miles east of Broome Hill.” 
Milligan has recorded it as “ Fairly numerous in the * marlock ’ clumps, 
but not seen elsewhere,” from the Stirling Ranges. 
Alexander, from the Perth district, wrote: “ Resident. Not common, 
but sometimes the numbers are greatly increased by arrivals of birds, 
presumably from further inland.” 
Dove has recorded nesting habits of this species in Tasmania from which 
I quote : “ The male bird had left the burrow 7 as we approached, showing 
that he takes some part, at any rate, in the incubation. . . The Yellow- 
tipped Pardalote is the lively little bird which appears in numbers hi tho 
springtime among the big eucalypts, calling incessantly ‘ Pick-it-up! pick- 
it-up ! ’ or, as some interpret the notes, ‘ Wit-e-cliu.’ While living in the 
forest near Table Cape, North-west Tasmania, I used to notice about the 
same time each spring this familiar call resounding among the trees where 
it had not been heard all through the winter months, and from this fact, and 
not seeing any of the birds themselves, I believe the Yellow r -tipped species 
to be a migrant, although the Spotted Pardalote ( P. punctatus) stays with us 
all the year.” A little later Dove wrote: “ The delicate ‘ Pick-it-up ’ call 
of the Tree Diamond-Bird or Pardalote (P. punctatus) v r as another sound 
which greated the ear on this spring day. One of the smallest of our migrants, 
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