THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
found on the River Murray and a still lighter one in the Flinders Range; the 
lightest of all is a common bird in the ulterior and is what I call leilavalensis. 
All through the centre of Australia wherever there ai'e red gums I have found 
this form. The darker form is found hi numbers all through the Mt. Lofty 
Ranges and out upon the plains. They have a great habit of giving alarm 
notes at any unusual occurrence. Many mammals and other birds are warned 
of the approach of man or other danger such as a hawk, etc., and consequently 
they are no friends of the sportsman. They will mob owls or other large 
birds, a party up to a dozen surrounding the bird and making a great noise. 
They have many calls, one of a single note when feeding is a sharp shrill one; 
the warning note is a loud and sustained trill which is echoed on from one 
party to another. Their food consists chiefly of insect life, but they will also 
gather honey from the gum-blossoms or other flowers, including those of garden 
plants. They nest from August to November or later, rearing two or sometimes 
even three broods in the season. The nest is a cup-shaped structure suspended 
in overhanging foliage and is composed of dry grass and cobwebs lined with 
rootlets or more often horsehair.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has also written: “ The White-plumed Honey-eater 
is the commonest Honey-eater in South Australia, being very widely dispersed 
throughout the country ; and on the Adelaide Plains no other bird is so 
numerous, every schoolboy knowing the ‘ Greenie ’ as it is familiarly called, 
and even in the streets of Adelaide I have noted this bii'd hopping about in 
the trees in search of food, which consists to a large extent of insect life such 
as flies, gnats and small beetles, and I have often seen them eating the green 
aphides off the cabbages and rose bushes in my garden at the Reedbeds, where 
they are very numerous. They like the open big gum country on the alluvial 
flats along the rivers, and the River Torrens gives them every scope in this 
respect. I have also seen them plentifully along the winding course of the 
River Murray where trees and bushes give ample cover for them to breed 
and live. They are intensely inquisitive birds and make a great fuss if 
anything strange is espied; they twitter and twitter very loudly with a harsh 
note and this generally calls several more birds to the spot to see what is the 
cause of the alarm. Timid birds take this twitter as a note of waniing and 
are on the alert, and I have even seen rabbits take heed to the v r arning note of 
the ‘ Greenie ’ and bob down their burrows. The breeding-season extends 
over a considerable period, starting about August and ending as winter 
approaches, about April.” 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin writes from Cobbora, New South Wales : “ A very 
common species here in suitable situations, but it is seldom to be met with 
far away from the vicinity of water, such as along river banks lined with oaks 
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