NOTES ON THE VARIED HONEY-EATER 

 {PTILOTIS VERSICOLOR, GOULD.) 



By Alfred J. North, C.M.Z.S., C.M.B.O.U., Ornithologist. 



PtUotis versicolor, North, Vict. Nat., xxi., 1905, p. 167. 



(Plate v., fig. 3.) 



The Varied Eoney-eater was described by Gould in 1842 from 

 a fiingie specimen contained in a collection of bird skins from 

 Northern Australia, and was for many years regarded as a rare 

 species. It is an inhabitant of the coastal districts and adjacent 

 islands of Northern and North-eastero Queensland and Southern 

 New Guinea, and is also found on some of the intermediate 

 islands of Torres Strait. Off the coast of North-eastern Queens- 

 land, MacGillivray obtained this species on Dunk Island, and 

 Elsey on Albany Island. Many specimens were procured by 

 the "Chevert" Expedition, fitted out by the late Sir William 

 Macleay, since when it has been obtained by various collectors 

 both in New Guinea and Australia. 



Among a small collection of bird skins sent me for examination, 

 made by Mr. Albert F. Smith, principally near Cairns, North-eastern 

 Queensland, and the neighbourhood, was a specimen of Ptilotin 

 versicolor, Gould, collected by him on one of the Frankland Islands 

 on the 16th October, 1901. Subsequently I received a second 

 specimen from him, shot in company with the other, also their 

 nest and a set of two eggs taken at the same time. 



The nest of PtUotis versicolor, as will be seen from the accom- 

 panying plate, is an open cup-shape, and somewhat scanty struc- 

 ture, daylight being visible through the greater portion of the 

 sides. Externally it is formed of fibrous rootlets, held together 

 with plant down and spider webs, with which are intermingled 

 a few egg-bags of spiders and their green silky covering, the 

 inside being sparingly lined with fine pale brown rootlets and 

 fibre, and at the bottom with a small (quantity of silky- white plant- 

 down. It is attached by the rim on one side to a leafy horizontal 

 branch from which springs a thin twig at right angles, but this is 

 concealed in the structure, two leaves being worked on to the 

 side of the nest. Externally it measures three inches and three- 

 (juarters in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth, the 

 inner cup measuring three inches in diameter by one inch and a 

 half in depth. 



