THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
perch, utter a mournful sort of whistling song. The nests are somewhat 
broad and shallow, mostly made of dry grass. The clutch of eggs is usually 
three. The nests are built from three to five feet above ground in bushes. 
July 4, 1898, 3 eggs. July 14, 1899, 2 eggs. July 21, 1901, 2 nests each 
with 3 eggs. July 28, 1901, 2 nests each three eggs and one with young birds. 
July 27, 1901, 1 egg. Sept. 1, 1913. Recently fledged young. The female 
bird, when a nest containing young is approached, flutters close round one 
feigning lameness. June 23-25, 1902. Hundreds of these birds were flying 
in flocks against a strong N.E. -wind about 30 miles south of North-west Cape, 
45 miles across to mainland. Query, which way did they go on reaching 
the Cape ? ” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers has sent me a short note : “On Jegurra Creek, 45 miles 
south of the Fitzroy River, I saw two small flocks of these birds, travelling 
east, flying from tree to tree. I think this species only occasionally visits 
the Fitzroy River as I only saw them at long intervals and never common.” 
Captain S. A. White has written: “ This bird is only found in the 
interior of tins State, South Australia. The writer met with it at Moorily- 
anna Native Well in the north-west of tins State. It was seen hopping on the 
ground round a mulga bush, then climbed up the stem after the manner of 
a parrot till it was two feet or more from the ground, when it hung head 
downwards for a minute or so, then it let go and dropped to the ground, 
hopped round the bush again and then repeated the performance. I also 
met with it on the Strzelecki Creek in 1916.” 
Whitlock wrote from the East Murchison, West Australia: “A few 
pairs around Lake Violet, but more common on the big spinifex plain west 
of Bore Well. They arrived during the last week in July and early part of 
August. Parties were still travelling throughout the latter month. At 
Bore Well they fed, in company with the Wood-Swallows, on the curious 
ground-flowering plant, Brachysema daviesioides, and the fore-heads and 
crowns of several I shot were so thickly coated with pollen that I had to 
scrape it off with a knife. In the early part of September they were breeding 
amongst the scrub on the spinifex plains. The favourite nesting site was in 
the branches of the handsome red-flowered HaJcea multilineata, with its 
oleander-like growth. On the East Murchison this shritb attains a height 
of 15 or 20 feet, and to reach one or two of these Honey-eaters’ nests I had 
to climb the lower branches. The nests were very substantial. Outwardly 
they were made of dried spinifex and other grass stems, the cup being 
wonderfully neat and lined with similar but finer material. In the ten clutches 
of eggs I found, not much variation in type is apparent. One pair was 
pyriform, and these reminded me irresistibly of miniature eggs of the European 
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