80 MELIPHAGID.E. 



Adult male — General colour above olive-brown passing into fulvous-brown on the rump and 

 upper tail-coverts; upper wing-coverts and quills dark brown, margined externally with greenish- 

 yellow ,: tail-feathers brown, the central pair washed on both webs, and the remainder margined 

 externally with greenish-yellow; head like the back, but with a slight ashy-grey shade; tips of the 

 feathers below and behind the eye white, followed by a small triangular or an acute-angled patch nf 

 short bright yellow feathers; chin, throat and fore neck dull brownish-grey, passing into a dull yellowish- 

 white on the remainder of the under surface and the under tail-coverts; bill blackish-brown : legs and 

 feet grey; iris reddish -brown. Total length in the flesh 'r7'i inches, icing 2-7, tail ?■?, bill 0-68, 

 tarsus 0-65. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution— Queensland, New South Wales, Central Australia, Western Australia, Xorth- 

 western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia. 



fCsy EGARDING the characters as untenable upon which Gould founded his Stigmatops 

 J_ \_ suhocularis, the distribution of the present species extends over the greater portion of the 

 Australian continent. Gould who originally described Stigmatops ocularis in the Proceedings of 

 the Zoological Society,* erroneously gives its habitat as Van Diemen's Land, also that of S. 

 subocularis, described on the same page, as New South Wales. The latter he united with 

 S. ocularis in his folio edition of the " Birds of Australia,"' but separates it again in his '-Hand- 

 book to the Birds of Australia," where he states the skin of S. subocularis was obtained by Lieut. 

 Emery on the north-west coast. 



In New South Wales Stigmatops ocularis is freely distributed in favourable situations. I found 

 it fairly numerous in November iSg8, in the Red Bottle-brush trees (Callistemou lanccolatus), and 

 the Drooping Myrtle or Water Gum (Eugenia ventenatii) overhanging the banks of the Upper 

 Clarence River, and in which they were breeding. Their cheerful and decidedly musical notes 

 resembling those of the Reed Warbler ( .Icrocephalus australis) were heard, but with few intervals, 

 throughout the day, from early morning until after sunset. In the neighbourhood of Sydney, it 

 may be regarded as a comparatively rare species. Although I have seen them, and heard their 

 merry notes poured forth while engaged in their search for food in the leafy sprays oi z. Eucalyptus 

 in my garden at Ashfield, during August and September, I have never found or heard of any 

 one finding the nest of this species in the vicinity of the city. The birds are more often met with 

 on the southern shores of Botany Bay and at the National Park. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland who obtained this species both in Central and North-western Australia 

 writes me : — " Among the scrub which clothes the sides of the rocky gullies in the west Macdonnell 

 Ranges in Central Australia Stigmatops ocularis makes its presence known long before it is seen. 

 It has a rich loud song which is heard to advantage in the narrow deep gullies it frequents. 

 Usually it is met with singly or in pairs ; when two of the same sex meet a chase or fight ensues. 

 At Derby, North-western Australia, it is very plentiful durmg the autumn when the Melaleuca 

 trees are in blossom." 



While resident at Point Cloates, North-western Australia, Mr. Tom Carter wrote me as 

 follows: — "The active little songster Glycyphila ocularis may be heard almost any season of the 

 year in the deep scrubby gullies on the ranges inland. It may also occasionally be seen or heard 

 in the thickets on the coast sand hills. The nest is generally well concealed and built in some 

 dense creeper or bush overhanging a gully." 



Mr. Edwin Ashby who kindly sent me two specimens for examination, obtained by him in 

 Western Australia, writes: — "I first met with Glycyphila ocularis, in May 1889, at York, about 

 one hundred miles due west of Perth. In August 1901, I found it at Callion, seventy miles north 

 of Coolgardie, and in the same month it appeared to be numerous in the neighbourhood of Perth." 



* Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p 154 

 t Gould. Bds. .\ustr, fol. ed., Vol. IV., p. opp. pi. 31, (1848). 



