MELIORNIS. 
193 
composed of fine strips of bark, fibrous roots and grass, lined 
inside with the soft downy tufts of the Banksia cones ; the rim 
of the nest is thick and rounded. Exterior measurement four 
inches in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth, cavity 
two inches and a-quarter in diameter by one inch and a-half in 
depth ; rim about one inch in thickness. This nest, Mr. Masters 
informs me was built in a Banksia close to the ground. Eggs two 
or three in number for a sitting, of a pale buff, minutely but 
thickly freckled and spotted with chestnut and reddish-brown, in 
some instances forming a well defined zone, in others the markings 
are nearly obsolete and appear as if beneath the surface of the 
shell. Dimensions of a set in the Australian Museum Collection, 
taken October 1st 1868, length (A) 0'77 x 0-57 inch; (B) 08 x 
058 inch. 
The breeding season of this species commences in August and 
lasts till the end of Novembei’, but early in October the greater 
number of eggs were procured. 
JIdb. Wide Bay District, New South Wales, West and South¬ 
west Australia. (Ramsay.) 
MELIORNIS SERICEA, Gould. 
White-clieeked Honey-eater. 
Gould, Handblc. lids. Aast., Yol. i., sp. 298, p. 490. 
This bird is found breeding in the neighbourhood of Sydney; a 
nest of tins species now before me, taken by Dr. Ramsay at 
Dobroyde on the 18th of September 1864, is cup-shaped, outwardly 
composed of fine twigs, strips of bark and coarse grasses, lined 
inside with the nests of spiders, and the soft downy tufts of 
Banksia cones; exterior diameter three inches and a-half, depth 
three inches, inside cavity two inches in diameter by one inch and 
three-eighths in depth ; another nest in the Australian Museum 
Collection is almost entirely composed of strips of bark, with a 
lining of dried portions of the Flannel flower, Actinotus helianthus. 
The nest is usually placed in the fork of a Banksia or Hakea 
M 
