430 APPENDIX. 



" hill lihirk: If.i/s an<l ffft sidti/l/lni': uahd akin of yajie gri'euish-bhie; iris rich broivn" (McLennan). 

 Total hiui'h (y I liic/iea, tviiiy li'9. tail ,?'5, bill 0'7, tursiis 0'7 . 



Adult FKMALK — Simibtr in jilumai/i' ill (lie riinli- but sin<tlb-r, miil tlir hair-like ffatlien^ on the 

 throat nut no n\'ll dereloped. Wimj J 5 inches;. 



Distribittion. — Cape York Peninsula, North yueensland. 

 /TFV OULD described the present species in the " Annals and Magazine of Natural History," 

 >^_j| in i86g, from specimens procured by the late Messrs. J. A. Thorpe and J. Cockerell, in 

 lS6S, at Cape \'oric, North Queensland. In the same year he figured it m his " Supplement to 

 the Birds of Australia," where he remarks : — " It is but an act of justice that at least one of the 

 birds of Australia should be named after Mr. James Cockerell, inasmuch as he is a native-born 

 Australian, has collected very largely in the northern parts of that great country, and discovered 

 more than one new species, among which must be enumerated the present very interesting bird. 

 Mr. Cock-erell informs me that it frequents the forests of tlie little explored parts of the Cape 

 York Peninsula, often in company with tiie Blue Mountain Lory and the \'ellow-spotted Honey 

 eater (Ptilotis notata), to which latter bird it assimilates in its actions and habits; it appears to 

 be most numerous in the neighbourhood of Somerset in October, November and December, 

 when the trees are in blossom, and is tolerably common in the districts alio\e mentioned. When 

 characterising it in the volume of the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' above referred 

 to, I remarked that 'although I have placed this beautiful new species in the genus Ptilotis, I 

 am by no means certain that I am correct in so doing, for the bird possesses characters which 

 ally it to at least three geneia, namely Stif;iiiatops, IMdipliiv^a and Ptilotis, while it also possesses 

 characters peculiar to itself of almost sufficient importance to demand a distinct generic 

 appellation." 



None of the adult specimens I have examined show so much of the grey on the head as is 

 represented in Gould's figures, the forehead and crown of the head being blackish or dusky- 

 brown, and dark steel-grey only on the periophthalmic region. For an opportunity of examining 

 and describing the nest and eggs of this species, I am indebted to Dr. W. Macgillivray, of 

 Broken Hill, who has kindly forwarded on loan a nest and the set of eggs, with the birds shot 

 therefrom, also a fledgeling, collected for him at the Jardine Iviver, Cape York Peninsula, by 

 Mr. W. McLennan, in April and l\Iay, 191 1. Accompanying the specimens were notes made 

 by the latter, from which I ha\e extracted the following information. " On the 12th March, 

 lgli,at the Jardine Iviver, I siiot a GlycypJiila, which I think is new; the call is similar to 

 that of Siigiitatops ocularis. (_)n the 24th April, iqii, twenty-two miles from Peak Point, I 

 found a Glvivpliila building; the nest was composed of line rootlets, bound together with 

 spider's well, and placed in a fork of a small Tea-tree, two feet from the ground, at the edge of 

 the scrub. On the 3rd April I examined this nest again, and found it deserted. On the qth 

 May, 191 1, I went out along the creek near the camp, and found a nest of Glycyphila with two 

 fresh eggs, and shot the female from the nest. The nest, which 1 am sending for description, 

 was in a small Tea-tree, two feet six inches from the ground. Found four old nests and a nest 

 with two half-fledged young in similar bushes, and all about two feet six inches from the ground. 

 On the following day I went through the swamp near the camp, and found a Glycyphila nest 

 with two fresh eggs in a small Tea-tree bush, eighteen inches from the ground, and shot the 

 female. On the 15th May, igii, went down the creek for a couple of miles, found a Glvcyphihi 

 nest with two young ones. Saw a couple of young Glycyphihi, just out of the nest, and obtained 

 one for description. The contents of the stomachs of the birds procured consisted of honey and 

 insects. Their flight and general habits are similar to Glynphila albifrons, and their nests and 

 eggs prove beyond a doubt that they are a species of Glycyphila." 



The nest, a deep, cup-shaped, thin-walled structure, is built throughout of long, very fine 

 dried plant stems, held together here and there with spider's webs, and with this material it is 



