WHITE PLUMED HONEY-EATER. 
Captain S. A. White has recorded of the Centralian bird: “ This was an 
extremely common bird, and we collected it from around Oodnadatta, and then 
all through our journey. It pax-takes much of P. pencillata in habits and note, 
and like this bud is very pugnacious, attacking every and any bird that should 
come in its way, from a Tit to a Wedge-tailed Eagle. They are quite annoying 
when one is trying to stalk some other bird, for they will follow up, calling 
loudly then- note of alarm. The nest is much smaller and shallower than 
P. pencillata .” 
Mi-. Tom Carter, after whom this form was named, has written ; “ The 
North-western White-plumed Honey-Eater (P. carteri ( penicillata) ) occurs in 
countless numbers in the white gum trees and other timber and scrub about 
the bed of the Gascoyne River and its tributaries, particularly in the neighbour¬ 
hood of fresh water pools, where, in hot weather, these birds fairly swarm. 
From ten to twenty of them may be seen in a row drinking on the edge of a 
pool. Like P. ornata, these birds are very partial to feeding in white gum 
trees, and are met with in all creeks, rivers, and pools where these trees grow, 
from the North-west Cape to about the Irwin River in the south. They wei-e 
noted as common hi white gum trees at water troughs in the centre of the 
town of Mingenew (Irwin R.) in 1904. When pools dry up in bad seasons, 
the birds to a great extent move to where there is water. In habits they ai*e 
very lively and inquisitive, and continually utter a pleasing liquid warble from 
earliest dawn until dark. The first authenticated eggs were found by me 
July 14th, 1899, on my Cardabia Creek Station, about 60 miles S.E. of Pt. 
Cloates. The nests are usually built in the scrub in the close vicinity of water. 
A species of bush (Acacia ?) with long, sharp spikes is much used for nesting 
sites, also a vai-iety of lai*ge salt-bush. The nests are neatly made of fine grass 
and roots, with some vegetable cotton (!) and sheeps’ wool, and are generally from 
three to five feet above the ground. Clutch of eggs two. The breeding- 
season is very regulai-ly in mid-July, if the usual whiter l-ains have fallen. 
July 11th, 1899. Five nests, three with two eggs each, one with young, one 
incomplete. July 20th, 1900. Several nests with two eggs or small young. 
Aug. 20th, 1901. 2 eggs incubated. Sept. 18th, 1911. Many fledged young 
near Carnarvon.” 
Mr. J. P. Rogers wrote from Noi-th-west Australia : On Jegurra Creek, 
at the old Roebuck Station, forty miles from the Fitzroy, many of these 
birds were seen. None were seen at Mungi, but six miles to the noxth-west I 
saw several. 
‘ On my return I watched this bird carefully and found it numerous until 
I got within thirty miles of the Fitzroy. After leaving this point I saw very 
few, and at ten miles from the Fitzroy none were to be seen, although I 
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