220 
MELIfHA6lD.fi. 
form. The eggs are two or three in number, of a rich salmon- 
red, spotted with a darker tint, some of the spots fleecy, confluent, 
and distributed alike all over the surface of the shell, rather closer 
near the thicker end, but not forming a zone there ; in A., a few 
are confluent on the thick end forming a blotch on the top of the 
egg. In B. the spots are more scattered and obsolete markings 
of pale lilac are dispersed here and there over the surface. Length 
(A) l - 04 x 0'7 inch ; (B) 1*05 x 075 inch. From Mr. Barnard’s 
Collection. (Ramsay, F.L.S., S.S.W., Vol. vii., p. 52.) 
Sab. Derby, N.W Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 
Gulf of Carpentaria, Dawson River. (Ramsay.) 
Genus ACANTHORHYNCHUS, Gould. 
ACANTIIORHYNCHUS TENUIROSTRIS, Latham. 
Spine-bill. 
Gould, Sandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. i., sp. 339, p. 551. 
This pretty bird is widely distributed over the eastern and 
southern portions of the continent of Australia, it is a tame and 
familiar species being found alike in our public and private gardens 
where it may be seen extracting its food from the various flowers 
with its long slender spine-like bill. The nest of this species is 
placed in a low tree, or thick bush ; one found at Heathcote on 
the Jllawarra Line, on the 30th of October 1886, was built in the 
dead leafy twigs of a gum sapling ; it was cup-shaped, and rather 
roughly formed on the exterior with fine twigs and grasses, and 
lined inside with feathers, it contained two eggs in an advanced 
state of incubation. Eggs two in number for a sitting, somewhat 
pyriform, of a pale buff, becoming deeper in tint and 
approaching a light saturnine-red at the larger end, where they 
are marked with dark reddish-brown spots, intermingled with 
others of a deep bluish-grey, in some instances forming a zone, in 
others scattered over the surface of the shell, but always becoming 
