GREY-HEADED HONEY-EATER. 
on, when I began to do a little ornithological work amongst the creeks near 
my camp, I frequently came across it, and secured further examples. Unlike 
Ptilotis carteri the present species seems rather to keep away from water 
than to seek it. Possibly this may be due to the habits of special food plants, 
which in then' turn flourish best in drier situations. The favourite haunt 
of this Honey-eater is the rocky and narrow gullies running up to and amongst 
the ranges, and where Ptilotis carteri does not penetrate. It lives mostly in 
pairs, though I have often flushed five or six from some favourite flowering 
bush. Like all members of the genus Ptilotis it is a lively species, though it 
lacks the exuberant vivacity of P. carteri. It is equally as inquisitive as the 
latter, and will fly up to within a few feet of the intruder provided he remains 
motionless. The notes are very variable, some of them musical, but others, 
again, rather harsh. It can hardly be called a singer, its efforts in that 
direction being far inferior to those of P. carteri ; but, on the other hand, in 
variety of note or call it far exceeds the latter. It is an early breeder, and 
by the middle of July I found a nest containing young a day or two old, and 
a second nest with birds nearly ready to fly. These nests were nearly two 
miles from permanent water, and at a considerable elevation above the valley 
of the Coongan. In all I found about ten nests. . . In every case they 
were built low down, and always either in some shrub or large plant growing 
in the bed of a creek or on the bank close at hand. No concealment is aimed 
at. The favourite site is a branch of the prickly, grey-green-leaved canjie 
bushes; the materials of which the nest is constructed—fine strips of bark, 
spiders’ webs, and vegetable down—harmonizing wonderfully with the colour 
of the foliage. The nest is usually, but not always, suspended, and in several 
instances I found nests in a solitary canjie bush of the most meagre and 
stunted dimensions, and where one would never have thought of searching. 
Another I found at the head of a sterile and rocky gully in a flowering hibiscus 
plant—the only shrub in the neighbourhood ! Another nest was in the 
fork of a spreading but very open-branched shrub of considerable size, but 
the nest was easily visible when once located. The female is not a close sitter, 
and on the approach of danger is warned by the male, when she quickly 
slips off the nest and joins him in his efforts to attract attention to himself 
and from the locality of the nest. Two is the invariable number of eggs, 
which are creamy-white in ground-colour and sparingly spotted ox clouded 
with ferruginous blotches. The shells are very fragile, and it is quite impossible 
to deal with highly incubated eggs. If the first brood is successful the 
parents do not, I think, breed again the same season. The best way to find 
the nest is to go to some creek or gully where one or two pairs axe to be met 
with, and to watch for an individual passing by with building material in its 
527 
