PAINTED HONEY-EATER. 
not digest more than the outside of each berry, practically the whole fruit 
passes through them entire, less the skin, and they appear to have great 
difficulty in ejecting them, having to resort to the use of their bill to clear 
the glutinous mass away, this they wipe off on a branch of a tree, hence the 
reason for the spread of the mistletoe. During September, 1914, I shot a pair 
of these birds to make skins for identification, their stomachs were crammed 
full of whole mistletoe berries. When nesting they somewhat change their 
habits, and both birds assist in the task of incubation, neither bird sitting for 
more than half an hour at a time, and seldom that long ; they are often to 
be seen continually changing places, the non-sitting bird upon coming into 
the tree gives a warning whistle, then hops down to the nest, the sitting bird 
gently gets off, and the other, very quickly, simply seems to slide on with a 
steady mouse-like movement. The nests are most difficult to find, and, when 
found, sometimes cannot be seen from the ground, but the eggs can often be 
seen through the bottom of the nest. The first time I saw this species was 
on September 24th, 1914, a pair of them building a nest about 25 feet from 
the ground in a native cypress pine tree; three days later I took a pair of their 
eggs from it. I saw nothing further of the species till September, 1917. 
Since then (this note is only dated Nov. 10, 1917) I have located about a 
dozen pairs, and found seven of their nests, all of which have been placed in 
large flowering iron-bark trees, at the extreme end (in the leaves) of long 
horizontal thin branches, from 30 feet to 60 feet from the ground, and I 
know of no bird the eggs of which are so difficult to get. I have had to resort 
to means which I have never found necessary with any other species. The 
nest is just about the most flimsy structure of bird architecture imaginable, 
consisting of nothing more than a shallow concave frame, composed of short 
pieces of thin roots, with just sufficient spiders’ webs to hold it all together, 
and bind it to the leaves. The measurements of an average nest are as follows : 
depth over all one inch, depth of egg chamber f inch, across the nest 3 inches. 
One nest I secured containing three eggs was slightly more substantial, it 
measured: depth over all 2 inches, depth of egg chamber 1-| inches, and across 
the nest 24 inches. How the eggs remain in an average nest placed high up 
in a swaying branch, is difficult to imagine. Tire birds appear to be very 
close sitters, and no doubt they need to be. This year (1917) the first clutch 
of eggs I took was on October 31st, and during the next five days I took 
three more sets, and I now know of two other nests in the course of con¬ 
struction. With the exception of the set of three eggs already mentioned, all 
the others have been pairs. It must not be thought that I found the three 
nests in five days, as a matter of fact, I have been weeks watching these 
birds in all my spare time and found the nests by seeing the birds building 
379 
