192 
MELIPIIAGID;T3. 
placed in a low tree about six or seven feet from the ground but 
more often in a bush close to the ground. Eggs two or three in 
number for a sitting, usually two. 
Two eggs taken by Dr. Ramsay at Bondi, on the 25th of August 
1875, are of a creamy-buff ground colour, spotted, and minutely 
freckled with markings of a rich reddish-brown, and a few of 
reddish-black, more particularly towards the lai'ger end. Length 
(A) 0-8 x 0-58 inch; (B) 0-81 x 0-58 inch. 
A set taken by Dr. TTurst, near Botany, on the 21st of July 
1888, give the following measurements:—length (A) 0-77 x 063 
inch ; (B) 0-77 x 0 - G inch. 
A nest of tills species taken by myself at Melbourne, and 
several others found subsequently, eacli contained three eggs of 
M. novm-hollandice and one of Chalcites basilis. July and the 
four following months constitute the breeding season of this species. 
llab. Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers 
New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania. 
(Ramsay.) 
MELIORNIS LONGIROSTR1S, Gould. 
\ 
Long-billed Honey-eater. 
Gould, Handbk. Rds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 297, p. 488. 
This species is an inhabitant of Western Australia, and differs 
but slightly, if anything at all, from the eastern representative M. 
novrr.-hollandw. Mr. George Masters procured a number of the 
birds, also nests and eggs, while at King George’s Sound in 1868, 
but failed to find the distinction made by Mr. Gould between 
the birds from the eastern and western portions of the continent, 
specimens having been received from eastern Australia with the 
bill equally as long and robust as in that of M. longirostris. 
A nest of this species now before me, taken by Mr. Masters on 
the 1st of October 1868 is'very much neater in appearance on the 
outside than that of the preceding bird; it is cup-shaped, outwardly 
