MELIORNIS 63 



Meliornis longirostris. 



LONG-BILLED HONEY-EATER. 

 Jfeliphaffa longirostris, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1846, p. 83 ; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. IV., pi. 24 



(1848). 

 Meliornis lourjiroslris, Uould, Handhk. Rds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 488 (186.5); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. 

 Mus., Vol. IX., p. 254, (1884) suhsp. 



Adult male — /w'/v //c- adult male ((/' Mklioknis nov.e-iiollaxdi.t', Latham, but tin- irh'rt,' iiatrh 

 of feathers on the clincks is iinirli imrroivcr, and tijpifallij It has a sluihthj hniiji'r hill. Total length (tf 

 skin) 6'7 inches, whig 31, tail o'l, bill O'SS, tarsus O'S. 



Adult female — 7'he se.res are alike in plumage. 



Distribution — W'estern Australia. 

 "T"(?VROM specimens now before me, collected by Mr. George Masters at King George's 

 JL Sound, typically this western form may be distinguished by the characters pointed out 



by Gould, but Dr. Gadow remarks" "intermediate forms frequently occur in Southern Australia." 

 Dr. Ramsay + has included Wide Bay, Queensland, and New South Wales, as well as Western 

 Australia, in its habitat, but all the specimens I have examined from Eastern and Southern 

 Australia vary from M. longirostris in having the broader tuft of white feathers on the cheeks. 

 The most constant character in the specimens of M. longirostris, collected by Mr. Masters in 

 Western Australia is the much narrower white patch of feathers on the cheeks, the length of the 

 bill although typically longer, is variable, but the wing and tail-measurement is the same as that 

 of average eastern examples. Mr. Masters, who obtained twenty-five specimens and several 

 nests with eggs and young, informs me it is indistinguishable from M. nova-hoUanditr, in the 

 situations it frequents, habits, and sites selected as nesting places. 



A nest in the Australian Aluseum collection, taken by Mr. G. Masters, on the ist October 

 i868, is an open cup-shaped structure, outwardly formed of fine strips of bark, fibrous roots and 

 grasses, and is lined inside with the soft downy tufts ofBaiiksia cones, it measures externally four 

 inches in diameter by two inches and a quarter in depth, the inner cup measuring two inches 

 and a quarter in diameter by one inch and a half in depth, the rim which is thick and rounded 

 measuring one inch in width. This nest was built in a Bnnksia close to the ground. 



Four nests received from Mr. C. G. Gibson and taken by him at Laverton, Western 

 Australia, in July and August, 1905, are distinctly smaller and more neatly formed externally 

 than are the nests of the eastern species. Grey is their prevailing colour, being formed principally 

 of soft dead grey grasses, with which are intermingled stalks of herbaceous plants, cobwebs, and 

 plant down, the inside being entirely lined with the latter material; they are attached at the sides 

 to the thin terminal leafy stems of various shrubs, the one figured on the next page is built 

 in a species of salt-bush. It measures externally two inches and a half in diameter by two 

 inches and a half in depth, the inner cup measuring one inch and three-quarters in diameter by 

 one inch and a half in depth. 



Eggs two or three in number for a sitting, varying from narrow to thick oval in form, the 

 shell being close-grained, smooth, and slightly lustrous. They are of a pale bufif ground colour 

 which is thickly freckled and spotted with chestnut and reddish-brown, the markings predomin- 

 ating as a rule around the thicker end, where in some instances they form a well defined zone. 

 Others have the markings nearly obsolete and appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. 



• Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus , Vol. IX , p. 254 (1S83). 

 t Tab. List Austr. Bds., Addenda, p. 12 (1888). 



