The breeding-season commences in August and terminates in December. The nest is a frail, round, cup-shaped structure, the materials of which vary in different situations; those observed by me in New South Wales being composed of fine dried stalks of annuals thinly lined with fibrous roots woven together with spiders’ webs, and suspended by the rim to two or three fine twigs near the centre of the tree; on the other hand, those observed by Mr. Gilbert in Western Australia were formed of green grasses, which become white and wiry when dry, matted together with the hair of kangaroos or opossums, lined with fine grasses and the down of flowers, and placed in a thick scrubby bush at about three feet from the ground. The eggs are usually two, but occasionally three in number, of a light yellowish buff, thickly freckled with small indistinct reddish brown marks; or of a nearly uniform fleshy buff without spots or markings, but of a deeper tint at the larger end; their medium length is eleven lines, and breadth eight lines. Crown of the head and all the upper surface greyish olive; wings and tail brown, margined on their external webs with greenish yellow; lores, space around the eye and broad line down the sides of the neck black; ear-coverts pale yellow, behind which is an obscure spot of greyish white; throat and under surface pale yellowish grey striated with light brown; irides dark brown; bill black; legs and feet greenish grey. The female is like the male in colour, but smaller in all her dimensions. The Plate represents the two sexes and a nest of the natural size on a branch of a _Casuarina_. [Illustration: PTILOTIS VERSICOLOR: _Gould_. _J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._ ] PTILOTIS VERSICOLOR, _Gould_. Varied Honey-eater. _Ptilotis versicolor_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part X. p. 136. This fine species, which is a native of the northern portion of Australia, is only known to me from a specimen contained in a collection from that part of the country. That its whole habits and economy will hereafter be found to assimilate most closely to those of the _Ptilotis sonorus_ is certain, as it is most intimately allied to that species, but may be readily distinguished from it by its larger size, its much longer and stouter bill, by the more contrasted character of its markings, and the sulphur or wax-yellow colour which pervades the breast and upper surface. It is one of the finest species yet discovered of the genus to which it belongs, and is at present so rare, that my own specimen is probably the only one that has been brought to Europe.