TAWNY-FRONTED HONEY-EATER. 
in the vast expanses of the Australian bush. It does not love the deep 
recesses of the forest as other members of the honey-eating family do, and 
being a bird of this type it finds flowers more scarce and resorts more to insect 
food than otherwise. Often when out in these arid localities the long clear 
whistle of this Honey-eater has attracted my attention, sounding somewhat 
weird when associated with the country. At times I have noted it in more 
salubrious localities, but not generally. It has a habit of perching on the 
top of some prominent dry stick, or the top of the flower spike of the grass 
tree or * blackboy ’ ( Xanihorrhoea ), and although the place is a prominent 
one, the sombre colour of the bird and the somewhat upright position in which 
it perches makes it difficult to discern even when it is calling, especially against 
the sombre background. The breeding-season is from September to November 
in the southern parts. I have also noted this bird on Kangaroo Island and 
found them fairly plentiful on Flinders Island in Bass’s Straits ; they were 
located about a swampy locality where the heath and shrubs made it fairly 
open and congenial to them.” 
Captain S. A. White has written : “ This bird has an extensive range but 
does not extend as far inland as G. albifrons; it is to be found out on the 
heath-like country on the sea coast, in the low mallee and in the timbered 
country alike. They are often the only bird to be found out upon the lonely 
low bush or heath country, and their mournful note so long drawn out is in 
keeping with this solitude. Their flight is swift at times but mostly very 
erratic—they will dart up from some low bush, remaining for a moment 
upon a dry stick, then up and appear to drop head first into cover, to appear 
in another direction after the lapse of a few minutes. They nest from 
September to November, the nest being cup-shaped, composed of soft bark, 
dry grass and rootlets, placed in a low bush.” 
Air. A. G. Campbell wrote : “ One nest was discovered on Kangaroo Island 
in November, 1905, containing four eggs, a most unusual clutch, which judging 
by the two types of eggs were evidently laid by tw T o different birds. In 
Victoria the species frequents heather-like growth such as flourishes on all 
tertiary formations of a sandy nature occurring over large areas of the south 
and west.” 
Air. L. G. Chandler has written : “ My experience of this species has 
been in the Frahkston district. They are well distributed there about the 
heath lands, but can hardly be called plentiful. A bird may be seen to leave 
a small sapling and fly fifty yards or more to another sapling. Remaining 
there a minute or two it will quickly return to the former position. This 
performance is repeated many times, and varied by the bird occasionally 
diving into the undergrowth where it remains out of sight for a while. The 
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