NESTS AND EGGS Of AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 405 



339. — Ptilotis LEiLAVALENSis, North. 

 F. carter/, CampbeU. 



CARTER HONEYEATER. 



Reference.— Kec. Austn. Mus., vol. iii., p. 106 (1899). 



Gtuyraphical DUlrilmtiijn. — West and North-west Australia, Nor- 

 thern Territory and North Queensland. 



Nest and Egys. — Undcscribcd.* 



Observations. — Although this Honeyeater was first pubUcly exliibited 

 and described as new by me at the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 

 13th Mai'ch, 1899, under the name of P. carter i, I have to sink my 

 priority of title (the scientific, at all events) in favour of Mr. A. J. North s 

 P. hllavalen.sl.i, which appeared in the Australian Museum " Records," 

 17th April, or about a fortnight previous to tiie publication of my 

 description in the " Victorian Naturalist. " 



It is interesting to observe that the two birds desci'ibed were from 

 opposite sides of the Continent. One from the Fullartou River, about 

 thirty miles east from Cloncuriy, Queensland, was collected by 

 Mr. A. S. Macgilhvray, Leilavalc Station, who states these birds are 

 fairly common in the tea-tree along the river. The other was taken by 

 Mr. Tom Carter, in the region of the North-west Cape. 



The bird differs from P. penici'/ata, of which it appeai-s to be a 

 northern or westexn representative, by its yellow-tinted plumage- — 

 almost as yellow as P. fiavescens. 



' Since this was written, and through the e.xertions of Mr. Carter, I have been 

 enabled to describe a nest and eggs of this newly-named Honeyeater, taken by him 

 on the 14th July, 1899, at Cardabia Creek. (Vide " Victorian Naturalist," vol. xvi., 

 p. 87.) 



Neil. — Cup-shaped, oval, well-built, chiefly of wool and spiders' cocoons bound 

 together with light-coloured rootlets ; lined inside, principally on the bottom, with 

 yellowish vegetable down, and suspended by the rim to a salt bush, three or four 

 feet from the ground, near a water-hole. Dimensions over all, 3 inches by 2j inches 

 in depth ; egg cavity, ij inches across by ij inches deep. 



Ei;gs — Clutch, two ; oval in shape ; te.xture of shell fine ; surface glossy ; colour, 

 whitish or pinkish-whiie, finely but distinctly spotted with reddish-brown and 

 purplish-brown, the markings, which are moderately disposed, being as usual 

 thickest on the larger end. Most resemble those of its near ally P. penicillata. 

 Dimensions in inches :— (i) 85 .x 6, (21 83 x -6. 



Obitfuations.- Mr. Carter writes;— "At the creek I soon found a nest of my 

 namesake. The hen came off very wildly, and after some hunting I found the nest 

 suspended three and a-half feet from the ground, in a species of salt-bush, among 

 dense prickly acacia scrub, on the edge of a pool. It contained two eggs. Both 

 birds came flying about, and I shot the hen. Although there were several other 

 pairs of birds at that pool I failed to find more nests. Ne.\t day I went further up 

 the creek and found three more nests of the Honeyeater : the first, with two small 

 young ones, in a salt-bush (old man), about three feet from the ground ; the second 

 in the same sort of bush, with two eggs , and on returning on the opposite side of 

 the creek the third nest, hanging in one of the prickly acacias. This had two fresh 

 eggs The following day I found a fourth nest ready for eggs, in a bunch of acacia 

 and salt-bush." 



Mr. Carter further added that in one clutch the markings were blotchy and not 

 so well defined as in those above described, which are apparently typical. 



