236 
DIC^EID/E. 
Family DICiEIDiE. 
Genus DICiEUM, Cuvier. 
DICTUM HIRUNDINACEUM, Shaw. 
Swallow Dicseum. 
Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Yol. i., sp. 358, p. 581. 
No bird seems to have a wider range over the continent of 
Australia than the present species, specimens having been received 
from all portions of it where collections have been formed. 
Especially is it to be found inhabiting the trees where the 
Loranthus and other parasitical plants abound ; berries of various 
kinds constituting its food. Mr. J. A. Thorpe found this 
bird breeding at Cape York in 18G6-C7, and obtained both nests 
and eggs. One of the nests now before me, is a beautiful pear-shaped 
structure with an entrance on one sido close to the top, and is 
suspended to the thin leafy branch of a Eucalyptus. It is 
composed throughout of the soft downy seeds of plants, beautifully 
woven together, closely resembling felt, and has quite an 
elastic tendency; total length three inches and a-half, breadth 
two inches and a-quarter; length of aperture which is pear-shaped, 
one inch and a-quarter, breadth one inch, meeting at a point at 
the top. Another nest from the same locality is slightly larger, 
and is ornamented on the outside with portions of the woolly buds 
of some flowering plant. 
Dr. Hurst who obtained a nest and eggs of this bird in the 
grounds of Newington College, on the Parramatta River near 
Sydney, informs me that it took six weeks from the time the nest 
was first commenced, till it was finished and the full complement 
of eggs, three in number, laid therein. Eggs perfectly white ; 
the above set measure as follows : — length (A) 0'G5 x 0 - 45 inch; 
(B) 0 G8 x 0-47 inch; (C) OGG x 0-45 inch. 
Measurements of a set in the Macleayan Museum, taken at 
Cairns, Northern Queensland, in 1886, length (A) 0'7 x 0’44 inch ; 
(B) 0'7 x 0 - 43 inch. 
