SPOTTED PARDALOTE (DIAMOND-BIRD). 
its voice is usually first heard during the last week of August or the first few 
days of September.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me: “ P. xanthopygus is not a common 
bird in South Australia, although my father’s notes state that they were fairly 
plentiful at the Reedbeds in the sixties. Their note is very like that of 
punctatus and their habits seem similar.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby has written me: “ This (P. xanthopygus ) is usually 
the common species wherever the soil is sandy in the neighbourhood of 
Blackwood, but for some reason they deserted our neighbourhood during 
last spring (1909), probably because cf the exceedingly wet winter (a record); 
most likely the sandy soil with clay subsoil held the water like a sponge 
beyond the usual time for breeding and the birds had to search elsewhere. 
Most years a pah nest hi the ploughed ground of my orchard quite near the 
house. While I try to preserve the nest from molestation, on occasions it 
has been ploughed up and other times the cat has got the young. The burrow 
is in soft sand about 15 to 18 inches deep, never far from the surface altho’ 
often started on flat ground. The end chamber is well lined with grass, making 
either a very deep cup or a slightly domed nest. I have collected this species 
hi the Mallee scrub on York Peninsula and also in the scrub near Mannum 
on the River Murray. Pardalotus punctatus is less common than P. xanthopygus 
at Blackwood, South Australia. I have found it numerous in Tasmania, 
Victoria, and exceptionally numerous in the New England district in New 
South Wales. The shrill whistle of the cock bird hi two shaip notes, the 
first shrill and the second considerably lower, is the same as that of the above, 
whose monotonous cry is heard everywhere in springtime amongst the sapling 
gums in the neighbourhood of Blackwood.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe’s notes read: “At the Kow Plains during October, 1909, 
v r c noticed a fair number of this pretty little creature (P. xanthopygus). The 
call-note is a soft high tinkling note, a monotone, and as the bird is ventri- 
loquial it is very hard to locate it. We saw some burrows that had just been 
started, w r hile others contained young birds nearly fully fledged. On Oct. 10th 
I found a burrow hi the sand from which I flushed the female, and on digging 
it out found it contahied four young so well fledged that they all took wing 
but one. The plumage hi this specimen was identical with that of the female, 
but the gape was cream in colour and the inside of the mouth orange.” 
Mr. A. Mattingley sent me: “I have found the mouse-like burrow of 
this most beautiful of the Pardalotes (P. xanthopygus) situate in the sand in 
the Mallee. The burrow r was tunnelled directly into the sand from a flat 
surface, and twenty-two inches in was a nest, perfectly spherical in shape, 
composed entirely of soft bark in which were cradled four roundish white 
