THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
from one foot to the other, rising and faUing at the same time as if it required 
every effort to get the notes out. I have met Avith them in some of the driest 
country in the interior. They are very pugnacious and I have seen several 
male birds in deadly combat, feathers flying m every direction. They have a 
way of darting about among the fohage of flowering bushes after birds and 
snapping their bills vigorously.” 
Mr. A. G. Campbell wrote: “A farmliar voice in aU parks and gardens 
of Melbourne in winter, but the bird leaves in spring to nest throughout the 
MaUee.” 
Mr. F. E. Howe’s notes read : “ The MaUee appears to be the stronghold 
of this species and I have seen them in hundreds, even thousands, feeding 
on the ti’tree blossom. We have taken their eggs at Pine Plains and Kow 
Plains. This bird makes its appearance in the gardens round Melbomne 
during autumn and departs again before September.” 
Mr. Tom TregeUas has written me: “ The Spiny-cheek comes eastward 
in the early part of March, the 15th being the first record in my book of their 
coming this year. I have never known them to come further out than 
CamberweU, and only isolated specimens at that. Their peculiar trilhng notes 
are heard a great way off, and in flight they utter a caU resembhng ‘ taw-tawer ’ 
several times repeated. Whilst sitting ui a bush they often utter a sharp chck 
hke a frog’s chirp. As far as I know, there have been no nests found this side 
of the Bay, as they aU leave here on the approach of the nesting-season and 
go westward to nest. I spent a few days on Swan Island dmlng the Christmas 
hohdays, and there I found the Spiny-cheeks in hundreds. Only one nest 
containing eggs was found and they were nearly incubated. Many other nests 
were seen from which the young had flown, and these were foUowing their parents 
aU about the island.” 
G. F. Hill wrote from the Ararat district, Victoria: “A sprmg arrival, 
foimd almost invariably in the sheoaks (Casuarina) growuig on the bare hillsides. 
I have no notes of their nesting habits, but I beheve that they build m these 
trees. Like the White-bearded Honey-eater and the Ciimson PaiTakeet, they 
are most destructive to the flowers ot the native Correa speciosa, whether they 
be gromng in the flower garden or in the bush.” 
Berney has written from the Richmond district, Queensland: “ Although 
never numerous, still, m suitable locahties, the Spiny-cheeked Honey-eater may 
be seen or heard all tlirough the year. At times I miss it for a while, but this 
is doubtless owing to a temporary shortage of some item in its menu. It is 
particularly partial to the honey of the mistletoe {Loranthus quandong). I have 
pleasant recollections of them at one camp where our during table was built under 
the refreshing shade of a bauhinia [B. carronii). Here ‘ Spiny-cheeks ’ would 
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