REGENT HONEY-EATER. 
that came near. I met with it in great abundance among the brushes of New 
South Wales, and also found it breeding in the low apple-tree flats of the Upper 
Hunter. I have occasionally seen flocks of from fifty to a hundred in number, 
passing from tree to tree as if engaged in a partial migration from one part of 
the country to another, or in search of a more abundant supply of food. The 
stomachs of the specimens I killed and dissected on the Hunter were entirely 
filled with liquid honey ; insects, however, doubtless form a considerable portion 
of their diet.” 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin has written me from Cobbora, New South Wales: 
“ Being a nomadic species, it is sometimes absent for years, then suddenly, 
towards the end of the whiter, it appears in great numbers, but they are very 
local in their habits, dozens of birds may be seen in the trees within a few acres, 
then one might travel some miles before seeing any more, when another 
gathering of them will be found. Then again in other years just a few pairs 
may be seen. One year here, after they had been very numerous all through 
the spring and summer, a fair number of the birds stayed during the winter. 
Once they put in an appearance here they stay to breed. It is most pugnacious, 
fiercely attacking one another, in fact other species also, especially during 
the breeding season ; if any other bird comes near the nesting site, it is after 
it at once. Locally, one of their favourite haunts is a clump of white box 
trees just outside my garden and orchard, but I have never known them to 
come within. Them song is a loud double almost ringing metallic sound, when 
uttered it is often accompanied by a bobbing motion of the head, but sometimes 
the head is only stretched forward. Their nest is more like that of a Fantail, 
or Flycatcher, than the usual type of most Honey-eaters, and is usually placed 
on a rather thick limb with rough bark, either horizontal or perpendicular, 
but I have seen them in a great variety of situations. I have taken their eggs 
from the first week hi October till the middle of December. The clutch is 
usually two in number, but often three.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “ This beautiful Honey-eater is 
fairly plentiful in the Mount Lofty Ranges at times and often visits the southern 
end of the Range in the autumn when they congregate in numbers in the 
flowering gum-trees. They become very noisy and pugnacious, chasing all the 
birds both large and small away from their feeding trees. These birds nest 
in the Mount Lofty Ranges in September and October.” 
Mr. J. W. Meflor also writes “This gay Honey-eater is by no means 
plentiful in South Australia, but at times is seen in the Mount Lofty Ranges 
amongst the bills clad in eucalypts and thickly bushed beneath with tall 
undergrowth. In Victoria and New South Wales it is also thinly distributed 
in the thickly brushed country.” 
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