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THE GEELONG NATURALIST. > 
PARDALOTUS ORNATUS (Temminck). 
RED-TIPPED DIAMOND DIRD. 
Ficure.—-Gould; Birds of Australia, fol., Vol. IT, pl. 38. 
REFERENCE.—Cat. of Bds., Brit. Mus., Vol. X, p. 55: 
Previous DESCRIPTIONS or EGGs.— 
Gould; Bds. of Aust. (1848); also Hdbk., Vol. I, p. 16r, 
(1865). | 
Ramsay : ‘ Ibis," Vol. I, New Series, (1865). 
North: Cat. Nests and Eggs, Aust. Mus., app. (189o). 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION : Queensland; N. S. Wales; 
Victoria ; South and West Austrälia. 
NzsT.—Constructed of fine grasses, with sometimes soft 
bark and feathers added and compactly built (usually cup- 
shaped), within a hollow of a tree. Frequently placed in the 
roof of an outbuilding, such as a shed or dairy or in the 
deserted mud-built nest of the Fairy Martin (Petrochelidon 
ariel), In some instances the nest is placed underground. 
Eccs.—Clutch, 3-5, usually 4; roundish ovals in shape» 
some examples slightly compressed at one end; texture of 
shell, fine; pure white, with a slight trace of lustre or gloss 
on the surface. 
Dimensions in. inches of odd examples (1) 0.7 x 0.57; 
(2) 0.7 x 0.56. j 
OssznvATIONS.— The exceedingly fine Red-tipped, or as 
the bird is frequently called, Striated, Pardalote, I have 
observed breeding both in the east and west of the southern 
portion of Australia. It is not found in Tasmania, but 
ranges northward to the southern part of Queensland. 
In some valuable Queensland notes that Mr. Herman 
Lau was induced to compile for me, under the heading of 
“Striped Diaménd-Bird,” he says :—“ Early in spring, when 
you are going along an embankment, you are greeted by short 
*chuck-chuck' notes. Upon looking round, a sweet, stumpy- - 
tailed bird hops lively from bough to bough almost within . 
your grasp. By so doing it betrays its nest, which you will 
be sure to find either in the bank or in a small hole of a lying 
log. The tunnelin the bank has a depth of from two to three 
feet. At the end will be found the nest, prepared of grass 
and well feathered, disclosing four white eggs. 
My workroom at Yandilla had, in one of the slabs, an 
auger-hole an inch in diameter, once used for a peg to hang 
upa saddle. Through this hole the little chap often used to 
come, and very pleasant it was for me while working to hear 
