. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . aving their wants attended toby one of the parents, probably the female. They were secured, and together with the nest arenow in the Group Collection of the Australian Museum. The nest, which is attached by the rimto two thin horizontal leafy twigs, is a neat, deep, cup-shaped structure, externally formed ofthin strips of stringy bark, spiders webs and portion of their white egg-bags, and cow-hair, allwoven together, the latter material being plainly visible in the accompanying figure; inside it islined at the bottom with cow
. Nests and eggs of birds found breeding in Australia and Tasmania . aving their wants attended toby one of the parents, probably the female. They were secured, and together with the nest arenow in the Group Collection of the Australian Museum. The nest, which is attached by the rimto two thin horizontal leafy twigs, is a neat, deep, cup-shaped structure, externally formed ofthin strips of stringy bark, spiders webs and portion of their white egg-bags, and cow-hair, allwoven together, the latter material being plainly visible in the accompanying figure; inside it islined at the bottom with cow-hair into which are worked two white feathers. Externally itmeasures two inches and a quarter in diameter by three inches in depth, the inner cup measuringone inch and three-quarters in diameter by two inches in depth. It was built in an Ironbarksapling twenty-five feet from the ground, among the thin upright leafy twigs within fifteeninches of the top of the tree. Later on in the season, two more nests containing young birdswere found at Chatswood and NEST OF THE SHORT-BILLED HONRY-EATER. MELITHREPTUS. 193 The eff^s are usually three, sometunes only two, in number for a sitting, oval in form, theshell being close-grained, smooth, and lustreless. A set of three taken on the 24th December,1900, by Dr. Chenery, are of a fleshy-buff ground colour, which is dotted and spotted with reddishchestnut, one specimen being almost uniformly marked over its surface, another has a well-defined zone on the thicker end, the spots being larger on one side than the other; the thirdspecimen has the markings scattered over the larger end, where in one place they assume theform of large penumbral blotches. Length (A) 07 x o54 inches; (B) oSg x 0-55 inches;(C) 0-7 X 0-54 inches. A set of three in the collection of Mr. Chas. French, Junr., vary inground colour from fleshy-white to fleshy-buff, being of a darker shade on the larger end, wherethey are minutely freckled and boldly spotted w
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Keywords: ., bookauthornorthalf, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookyear1901
