THE BIEDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
time. They have a great variation of notes at nesting time: the male bird 
wiU sit on a hmb, hold his head straight up and depress the tail and 
say, ‘ Get-up, Get-up, Wak, Wak, Keik Kewick, Keik Kemck.’ The young 
after they have left the nest keep up the incessant eaU all day long of ‘ Wak 
Wak ’ as they move about in the shrubs and trees after their parents for food. 
Insects and honey from flowers seem to form their food. The nesting period 
extends from August to November and they often bring out two broods. 
The nest is an open depressed structme composed of twigs and hned with fine 
rootlets, usual clutch bemg trvo eggs.” 
Mr. A. G. Campbell has written: “Is common during the winter months 
about the shores of Port Philhp, where it feeds upon the flowers of Banksia, 
but it disappears therefrom hr spring to nest about the quiet gulhes of the 
Pyrenees and other ranges m Central Victoria.” 
Frank Little has observed that it is becoming very scarce in many 
districts where it was once plentiful, owing to the opening up of the country 
by axe and fire. 
From the Stirling Ranges, Western Austraha, hlilligan wi-ote: “ I was 
also in doubt as to AcanthochceTa lunulata. The specimen which I shot in a 
secluded mountain gorge resembled A. mellivoi’a as much as the species named, 
and appear-ed to form a coimecting link between the two—that is to say, if 
it be possible to define a difference between the two species”—but later added: 
“ I have compared a number of skins of the western form with a skin of the 
eastern one, with the result ... in the latter form the head, liind-neck, and 
mantle are boldly streaked, while in the former the streaks are confined to 
the mantle only. The head and hind-neck are, however, in most instances 
minutely spotted with wliite. The most striking differences are those 
mentioned by Gould—^namely, the very much longer bill of A. lunulata and 
the presence of the conspicuous tracts of glossy wliite feathers along the sides 
of the neck. Each form has the remarkable ‘ meteoric shower ’ on the chest 
and breast. I do not Imow of any Austrafian species Avhere individual members 
of both sexes exliibit inter se such variations in size as m A. lunulata” 
From the Margaret River district. South-west Austraha, MUigan had 
written: “ These noisy bnds were very jilentiful in the sheltered pockets in 
the sea-liills.” 
Gould described the western form as a distinct species, writing: “ This 
species is very nearly aUied to the Anthochcera melUvora, but differs from that 
bh’d in the greater length of its bill, in the entire absence of the striae down the 
head and back of the neck, and in the possession of a limulate mark of white 
on either side of the neck. Its natural habitat is Western Austraha, where 
it generaUy frequents the Banksias bordering rivers and lakes, and in fact all 
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