THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
them. Now one of the most extraordinary things about these birds is, I 
find, they take from three weeks to a month to build their tiny little bit of 
a nest.” 
H. L. White named the northern form but gave no account of its habits, 
nor did Barnard. 
Recently, however, J. S. P. Ramsay, the son of the famous Australian 
ornithologist. Dr. E. P. Ramsay, has published a good account of the habits, 
from which I quote : “I was delighted to find the birds so numerous that, 
during that and the following week-end, nine nests were discovered within 
an area of about half a mile by a quarter. They were all built among the 
outer branches of Casuarinas ; one actually overhanging the water. They 
varied in height from 12 to 30 feet. Six of the nine held two young birds 
each, two each contained two heavily incubated eggs, and one nest discovered 
when being built was later deserted, probably owing to continued heavy 
rain. All the birds were exceedingly tame, and paid little attention to 
anything but their particular duty at the time. . . Both parents fed the 
young continually, at intervals of five to ten minutes, with the exception of 
about two hours at mid-day, during which only an occasional visit was paid 
to the nest. The only food supplied was mistletoe berries which appeared 
to have the outer skins removed, leaving visible the sticky substance 
surrounding the seed. The adult birds are most bright and showy, always 
on the move, and continually calling to one another. They will fly long 
distances direct from and to different feeding trees, or from feeding trees 
to the nest, which makes nest-finding a much easier matter than it would 
otherwise be, as the scanty structure of a few T interlaced rootlets is practically 
invisible among the attenuated 1 leaves ’ of the Casuarinas. Both parents 
incubate, and the male feeds the female constantly, though I did not observe 
the reverse to be the case. Nearly all the adults showed a black spot 
or two on the breast, but the breasts of some of the young that could fly 
were of a beautiful snowy-wliite. The backs of the juveniles were a fuscous 
or dusky-drab, and their bills had not attained the beautiful pinkish-lilac 
of the bills of their parents. The eyes also had a greyish tinge that was 
lacking in the adult specimens.” 
Comparatively recently H. L. White described a new subspecies from 
the MacArthur River, Northern Territory, as E. borealis, writing : 
tl E. picta Length 6‘3 in. Wing 3'5 Bill '55 Tarsus '7 inches. 
E. borealis 6 3’3 '5 *6 
The latter also differs in both sexes being darker above, the yellow on 
the wings being more pronounced, and in having the wdng-feathers faintly 
tipped with white (this is more noticeable in the female). The white markings 
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