TKICHODKRK. 



435 



first applied to this species, but it more appropriately describes it. Gould's fifi;ures of Ptdotis 

 fdsi.ioi;iil(iris, in his " Supplement," are rather too idealised, for the chin and throat of specimens 

 do not show those regular alternate bands of pale yellow and brownish-black as is there repre- 

 sented, but are more scale-hke in appearance, each feather being margined around the tip with 

 pale yellow. 



It freijuents the coastal districts of South-eastern Queensland, and more particularly the 

 Mangrove-dats of the contiguous islands. There are two specimens in the Australian Museum 

 Collection from the Brisbane River, received by the Trustees in November, iS8l, and four 

 others collected by the late Mr. J. A. Thorpe in October, 1885, on Fraser Island, near the 

 entrance of the Mary River. Mr. II. G. Barnard met with it along the banks of the Fitzroy 

 River, near Rockhampton, and Mr. Thos. P. Austin found it freely distributed on some of the 

 islands in the neighbourhood of Mackay, and especially on Green Island, twelve miles to the 

 north of that town, and lying aliout two miles off Shoal Point. 



Mr. Austin informs me that the nest is the usual cup-shaped structure of the genus Ptiloiis, 

 and is generally built in the mangroves. One found on Green Island on the 24th November, 

 1907, while in company with Mr. H. Nielsen, was built in a scrub near the beach, and contained 

 a dead bird. In Mr. Austin's collection are two sets of eggs taken by Mr. D. Dewar, a turtle- 

 hunter, on Mud Island, on the igtli September, 1910. 



The eggs, two in number for a sitting, are oval in form, the shell being close-grained and 

 almost lustreless. One of the above sets resembles very much a common type of the egg of 

 Ptilotis anricoinis, being of a fleshy-buff ground colour, and gradually passing into a warm 

 reddish-buff on the larger end, where they are indistinctly and finely spotted with dull purplish- 

 red, with which are intermingled a few underlying markings of pale purplish-grey. It 

 measures:— Length (A) 0-89 x 0-64 inches; (B) 0-9 x o-h4 inches. The other set is of a 

 paler and more uniform ground colour, especially one specimen, rendering the markings, which 

 predominate as usual on the thicker end, more distinct. It measures :— Length (A) 0-87 x o-6 

 inches; (B) 0-87 x o-6i inches. 



Trichodere cockerelli. 



COCKEIiELL'.S HOjNEY-EATER. 



Plilotis cockerelli, Gould, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist, Vol. IV., p. 109 (1869); id., Bds. Austr., 



fol. Vol. Suppl., pi. 43 (1869) ; Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX. p. 241 (1884). 

 Trichodere cockerelli, Nortli, Ibis, lOl'J, p. 120. 



Adult male. — G'^nernl colour ahore broivu, slic/hfhj paler on the rtunp and upper tail-coverts, 

 most of the feathers of th.' hind-neck, back and scapnlars broadly centred with darker brown: npper 

 wing-coverts dark brown, the greater series having indistinct whitish tips; primary-coverts dark 

 brown, externally edged with wax yellow,- quills dark bron-n, externally margiwd with rich tvax 

 yellow; the central pair of tail-feathers brown, washed on both w,'bs with wax yellow, the remainder 

 slightly dnrkor and washed on their outer webs only with wax yMow ; lores, forehead and crown of 

 head blackish-brown; feathers on the anterior portion of the head and the ear-coverts dark silky grey; 

 a few feathers on the cheeks, and the centres of some feathers on the sides of the neck bright yellow; 

 a tuft of elongated plumes h'hind the upper portion of the ear-cocerts rich golden-yellow; feathers of 

 the chin, throat and fore-neck pure white, close webbed near the shaft, hair-like at the sides, giving the 

 plumage of these parts a s/iinedike appearance; remainder of the under surface ivhite, some of the 

 feathers on the sides of the breast with blackish centres, and those of the lower jhinks streaked with 

 pale brown: thighs pale brown: under tail-coverts dull while, some of them havinrj pale brown centres; 



