YELLOW-TUFTED HONEY-EATER. 
located a tree where a supply is to be obtained. The ‘ manna ’ from 
the grey gum has been proved by Mr. H. G. Smith, F.C.S., of the Sydney 
Technological Museum, to contain as its principal constituent the sugar 
known as raffinose or melitose.” 
Hays from Bundarra, New South Wales, wrote in 1919 : “ As early as 
30th August this year I found the Yellow-tufted Honey-eater ( Ptilotis 
mlanops) nesting, and as these birds are not very common in this district, 
I became interested in them and watched their nesting operations. I am 
convinced that all birds group for nesting more or less, and these were a very 
decided instance, as I found fifteen nests within a circumference of one mile, 
and outside of that group you could not find a single nest or hear the familiar 
‘ Cheop, cheop, ’ of a single bird. Of the fifteen nests found, two only hatched 
out. One of these was destroyed by a fox when the young birds were nearly 
able to fly; the other nest was built on the side of a tree, about six feet from 
the ground, and the young survived. Two others laid two eggs each, sat 
on them for a while, and then deserted them. Of the other eleven nests 
completed, all were deserted without having eggs laid in them, and as this 
is the 30th October, and all the birds have departed, the nests are stiH empty, 
so it looks as if the increase in this particular species will be nil, unless rain 
induces them to start nesting operations all over again in some other locality. 
It would appear certain that the drought was the indirect cause, and the lack 
of blossoms, natural food, and water, caused by the long continued dry spell 
the direct cause. Only one nest was built higher than four feet from the 
ground, one was almost on the ground, the others all about two feet high, in 
small iron-bark bushes in most cases, one case on the side of a tree, one in 
the dead leaves of a fallen tree, and several in a low heath bush.” 
Le Souef and Macpherson’s notes from Sydney, New South Wales, are 
of interest, as this is the original locality whence this bird was described one 
hundred and twenty years previously. “ The Yellow-tuft, or, as it is often 
called, the ‘ Whiskey 5 is common in some of the outlying suburbs, where 
they sometimes attack soft fruits in the summer, though they feed largely on 
insects for the most part of the year. One will at times see a single Yellow- 
tuft fly into a tree and start calling, and as many as twenty or thirty of the 
same species will flock round him and sit with expanded wings or flit about 
uttering a short note, evidently holding a sort of council meeting a phase 
of action noted in many species of this family.” 
The technical history of this species is involved though really not 
complex. Gould called the bird Ptilotis auricomis, probably following 
Swainson who first figured it under the name Melliphaga auricomis, basing 
the name on Muscicapa auricomis of Latham. 
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