THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin has written me from Cobbora, New South Wales: 
I found this species just as common in the Bourke district of New South 
Wales as M. garrula is here. It was the first bird I saw after leaving that 
town on my way fm’ther north. A few years ago when the country was 
suffering a very severe di’ought, a few of these birds put in an appearance 
here, several of them taking up their abode in my garden, but when the 
drought broke they soon disappeared.” 
Captain S. A. White’s notes read: “This is a dry-country bird although 
some of the subspecies, such as obscura, are found in heavy rainfall country. 
It is remarkable that along the River Murray, M. melanocephala has possession 
of the big timber along the water-com’ses and on the flats ; yet a short 
distance away on the edge of the vast mallee country M. flavigula is found. 
This, in my mind, is due partly to the stronger birds keeping the yellow- 
throated ones back into the dry country which they have no liking for, and 
partly to the fact that M. flavigula likes the mallee; but in the interior this 
species is found in the big timber along all the big Avater-courses. I have 
foimd this bird in nearly every part of the interior I have yet visited. These 
birds nest in varied locahties. I have seen their nests in a shrub 15 to 25 feet 
from the ground up to 60 feet in large Red Gum. Their nest is often suspended 
and in thick drooping fohage of a gum, constructed of grass and tvdgs bound 
together with cobwebs and spider cocoons, horsehair and avooI often being 
interwoven, fined with wool but sometimes horsehair alone. I have found 
them breeding from August to November. Like other members of the group 
they are very pugnacious. Re melanotis, since I have found these birds breeding 
all through the maUee bordering the Murray to the Victorian border, their 
oggs are very distmctive, being of a much darker coloration than those of 
M. Jiavigula. M. obscura seems to have the same habits as the others, note 
the same and the flight, though the latter is not so sustained and the wings 
beaten rapidly when in flight.” 
Mr. J. W, Mellor writes : “ This bird can be detected easily from M, garrula 
while on the wing by the white rump which shows out conspicuously. I saw 
it plentifully distributed about the scrub country inland from Amo Bay, Eyre’s 
Peninsula, also in the Ffinders Ranges at Port PMe and Port Augusta, and 
also at the Port Germem Gorge ; here they seem to like the fully country and 
frequent the large gums m the deep gullies and ravuies of these momitainous 
ranges. Their habits are similar to those of the Noisy IVIinah, going about 
in little flocks of five or six and foUowmg each other from tree to tree and 
are just as noisy in their calls as that bird, which they are also filie in bemg 
somewhat pugilistic in then habits, drivmg away other birds that happen to 
come Avithin the precincts of their domain. Their food consists of honey 
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