206 
MELIPHAGID®. 
the rim to the fine drooping leafy twigs of a Eucalyptus, or to the 
horizontal fork of an Acacia; I have taken the nest of this species 
within hand’s reach of the ground, and at other times at a height 
of fifty or sixty feet. This Honey-eater always betrays the position 
of its nest upon the approach of any intruder in its vicinity by its 
loud and frequent notes of displeasure. Eggs two or three in 
number for a sitting; of thirteen sets now before me the ground 
colour varies from bufl'y-white to a light saturnine-yellow, the 
majority of them being minutely freckled and spotted uniformly all 
over with irregular shaped reddish-chestnut markings ; a few have 
on the larger end nearly round deep reddish-purple spots, with others 
of a deep lilac appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. 
A set in the Australian Museum Collection measures (A) 0 - 78 x 
0-55 inch ; (B) 0 - 79 x 0-55 inch ; (C) 0-76 x 0 - 58 inch. This set 
is marked uniformly all over with reddish-chestnut markings. 
A set taken in Albert Park, near Melbourne, September 14th 
1878, measure as follows :—length (A) 083 x 0 - 57 inch ; (B) 0-8 
x 057 inch; (C) 0'82 x 0'54 inch. 
I have found this species breeding in Victoria as early as the 
middle of July, and as late as the end of February. 
Ilab. Wide Bay District, Dawson River, Richmond and 
Clarence Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior, Victoria 
and South Australia. (Ramsay.) 
PTILOTIS FUSCA, Gould. 
Fuscous Honey-eater. 
Gould, Handblc. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 319, p. 520. 
“ The Fuscous Honey-eater breeds in September and the three 
following months, making a neat cup-shaped nest of stringy-bark, 
strengthened by the addition of a great quantity of cobweb ; it is 
lined with fine shreds of bark, hair, and sometimes the silky down 
from the seed-vessels of the wild cotton, (Gomphocarptus fruticosus). 
It is usually placed among the twigs at the end of some horizontal 
