THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Capt. S. A. White says : “ The young of this bu’d only has the yellow on 
the throat, and like the Blue-faced Honey-eater has only of late years come 
down the Murray to the lower part. They are fairly numerous now from 
Mannum up-stream. They are a pugnacious and noisy bird and are often 
to be seen chasing other birds. They nest along the river in overhanging 
boughs of the red gums. Nearly always over the water, the nest is a 
suspended one built of dry grass and twigs. Nesting time September to 
October.” 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin has written me from Cobbora, New South Wales: 
“ Rather a common species here dming the spring and summer months, but 
none are to be seen during the winter; mostly arriving in September and 
October, they are nomadic in habit. Seldom are they to be met wth far 
away from water, and I have never found them breeding away from water, 
their nests being usually placed in drooping branches in river oaks and native 
apple-trees over water. I know of no bird the nests of which differ so greatly; 
some are rather frail structures, loosely constructed, composed of dry grasses, 
while others ai'e great bulky structures, almost entirely composed of wool 
from sheep. Three eggs is the usual clutch; I have only once found four. 
They are late breeders, mostly laying during November, but I hare taken 
eggs as early as September 30th, and as late as Januaiy 12th. I have 
never found this species in flocks or in anythmg like such great numbers 
as T. corniculatus ; they ai'e ahvays met with smgly or m pairs, and 
they have the most extraordinary notes, w^hich are quite impossible to 
describe.” 
From Rockingham Bay, North Queensland, Ramsay wrote: “ Equally 
XDlentiful with the last mentioned, but confined to the more inland parts and 
open forest country ” ; and forty years later from the same locahty Campbell 
and Barnard wrote: “As in the case of the former Friar-Bird, this was smaller 
in size and slightly hghtly coloiued in appearance ; was observed only on the 
tableland, feeding on the flowers of the poplar gum trees.” 
Bemey wrote from the Richmond district. North Queensland: “Unlike 
the larger corniculattis, tliis Friar-Bird is plentiful along the river, but quite 
absent about the basalt country. It, too, is a noisy bk’d. A nest of this 
species contained three eggs on 8th January.” 
Captain S. A. White, reportuig about the birds met with on the Lower 
Murray, noted : “ Numbers of these birds were seen. They fly high at times, 
passing over the tree-tops. Large young were flying about with the adult 
birds, the bird being called the Yellow'^-blmoated, because the immature bird 
has yellow feathers on the throat, while the matured bird shows no trace of 
anv vellow.” 
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