e» $ 
Q THE GEELONG NATURALIST. 
struction of the nest. Sometimes previous season’s nest is 
renovated. 
The breeding season is included in the months from July 
to December. - i 
With reference to the Spotted Diamond-Bird being an 
early breeder in Victoria, a note from Mr. C. C. Brittlebank, 
dated rgth August, 1893, says:—‘‘ Male Diamond-Bird col- 
-lecting till his bill is full of bark which he gives to his mate, 
he then collects his own load and carries it to the nest." Ten 
days afterwards Mr. Brittlebank found the pretty birds still 
at work. , 
Dr. Ramsay observes that the Spotted Diamond-Bird 
sometimes chooses for its nest a small hole in a log, a crevice 
in an old wall, a niche under a shelving rock, &c.; still he 
has never known it to breed in the hollow branch of a tree, or 
take possession of the mud nests of the Fairy Martin, as the 
Red-tipped (P. ornatus) and Yellow-tipped .(P. affinis) 
Diamond-Birds sometimes do. 
PARDALOTUS XANTHOPYGIUS (McCoy). 
YELLOW-RUMPED DIAMOND BIRD. 
Ficure—Bds. of Aust., fol., Supp. pl. 8. 
RrrERENCE— Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. X, p. 59. " 
Previous Descriptions or Eccs.—Campbell, Southern 
Science Record (1885); North: Cat. Nests and Eggs, Aust. 
Mus., p. 50 (1889). i 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. —New South Wales, Vic- 
toria, South and West Australia. 
Nest.—A mouse-like hole drilled into the flat hard 
surface of the ground in an oblique direction for about two 
feet. At the termination is a cavity thickly walled with 
interwoven strings of soft bark. The nest is perfectly round, 
with the side entrance opposite, and leading directly out into 
the little tunnel. 
Eccs.—Clutch, 4, roundish ovals in shape, texture of shell 
fine, pure white with glossy surface. Dimensions in inches, 
average of full set, 0.62 x 0.5. 
OBSERVATIONS.—The Yellow-rumped Diamond Bird, or 
Pardalote, certainly the most beautiful of the family, is a 
denizen of the drier and almost waterless tracts of southern 
interior and Western Australia. My brother, Mr. W. R. G. 
Campbell, I believe, took the first authenticated nest of 
this species in the mallee (a species of dwarf eucalypt) scrub 
in the Wimmera District, Victoria, Subsequently on the: 
