MELITIIREPTUS. 
227 
MELITHREPTUS LUNULATUS, Shaw. 
Lunulated Honey-eater. 
Gould, Handbh. Bds. Aunt., Yol. i., sp. 349, p. 568. 
This bird is found breeding plentifully in New South Wales, 
Victoria, and South Australia. Amongst a number of nests 
presented by Dr. Ramsay to the Trustees of the Australian 
Museum, is one of this species, taken in October 1864; it is a 
deep cup shaped structure outwardly composed of shreds of stringy- 
bark (Eucalyptus obliqua), closely matted and held together 
with cobweb, wool, Ac., and lined inside with hair; it is slung by 
the rim to the leafy twigs of a Eucalyptus, exterior measurements 
two inches and a-quarter in diameter, by two inches and a-half in 
depth ; internal diameter one inch and a-half across by one inch 
and a-half in depth. Eggs two or three in number for a sitting, 
of a yellowish-buff ground colour, with spots of a deeper and more 
reddish hue; some specimens being uniformly spotted all over, 
but more often assuming the form of a zone. 
A set taken at Dobroyde in July 1861, measure as follows :— 
length (A) 0 73 x 054 inch; (B) 0’7 x 0 - 55 inch ; (C) 0-75 x 
052 inch. 
Two eggs of this species in my collection, taken at Hastings 
in October 1883, measure as follows :—length (A) 0-8 x 06 
inch; (B) 0-81 x 059 inch. I also procured an egg of Cacomanlus 
pallidus, from the same nest. 
This bird usually breeds during August and the three following 
months in Victoria, but there are eggs of this species in the 
Dobroyde Collection taken at Dobroyde, New South Wales, in 
June 1859, and July 1861. 
llub. Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers 
Districts, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. 
(Bam say) 
