ENTOMOPUILA. 87 



^T^HE range of the White-throated Honey-eater on the Australian continent is more restricted 

 J_ than that of the preceding species. In addition to the characters pointed out Entomophila 

 albigidai'is may be distinguished from E. vnfigularis by its larger bill. Gilbert remarks," " I first met 

 with it on Mayday Island in Van Diemen's Gulf, where it appeared to be tolerably abundant ; 

 I afterwards found it to be equally numerous in a large mangrove swamp near Point Smith. It 

 is an extremely active little bird, constantly flitting from branch to branch and taking irregular 

 flights, during which it utters its pretty song ; it also pours forth its agreeable melody for a length 

 of time without intermission while sitting on the topmost branches of the trees." Mayday Island 

 in \'an Diemen's Gulf is in the Northern Territory of South Australia, and less than twenty 

 miles distant from Yam Creek, near Port Essington, where Mr. Alex. Morton obtained specimens 

 of Entomophila nijigulai'is, but did not meet with the present species. The late Mr. Edward 

 Spalding ohserved E. albigulan's near Port Darwin, and nests and sets of eggs of this species were 

 received by the Trustees of the Australian Museum, taken on the Daly River. Mr. C. French, 

 Junr., also kindly forwarded me eggs for examination, and presented nests and mutilated skins 

 from the same locality. 



Recently Dr. E. Hartert has recorded! E. albigidaris from the Alligator River, and E. 

 rufigularis from the South Alligator River, one hundred miles from the coast. Although E. 

 alhigularis may occur in the coastal districts of the adjoining portion of North-western Australia, 

 I have never seen a properly authenticated specimen from this part of the continent. The 

 specimen referred by Dr. E. P. Ramsay J from Derby, North-west Australia, to E. alhigularis, 

 which I have now before me, is unquestionably the young of E. rufigulavis, which he correctly 

 described in a former volume of the "Proceedings of the Linnean Society New South Wales."!! 

 Dr. H. Gadow's description of a young bird of E. alhigularis in the "Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum," j in his list of specimens examined, stated to be obtained by Elsey in North- 

 western Australia, also applies to the young of E. rufigularis and not that of the present species, 

 for even in the fledgeling of E. alhigularis the feathers on the forehead are distinctly shaded with 

 ashy-grey, and the rufous-brown collar on the fore neck quite pronounced. 



Four nests of £. alhigularis now before me, taken from branches of trees overhanging the 

 banks of the Daly River in the Northern Territory of South Australia are all deep purse-shaped 

 structures slung by the rim to the junction of a thin leafy horizontal fork, where they are all 

 higher than the side between the widest portion of the fork. Outwardly they are formed of bark 

 fibre, plant down and spiders' webs firmly felted together, the inside and bottom of the 

 structure being globular in form and lined with fine wiry dried grasses and bark fibre. An 

 average one measures externally at the rim, where it is contracted, one inch and three-quarters, 

 its greatest diameter two inches and a quarter. From the junction of the fork to the bottom of 

 the structure three inches and a half; on the lower side two inches and a half. Internal 

 measurements at rim one inch and a ijuarter, depth two inches and a quarter. 



Of many sets of eggs examined three is the usual number for a sitting, but there is one set 

 of four in the Australian Museum collection. The eggs are oval in form, the shell being close 

 grained and lustreless, with minute dots and fine freckles of light red thickly distributed over the 

 shell, but predominating as usual on the thicker end, where in some instances they form a well 

 defined cap or zone, and resemble more closely the eggs of some species of Malurus. A set of 

 three in the Australian Museum collection taken on the Daly River in the Northern Territory 

 of South Australia, on the 14th January, 1902, measure as follows: — Length (A) 0-69 x 0-5 

 inches ; (B) 072 x 0-51 inches; (C) 072 x 0-49 inches. A set of four taken in the same locality 



* Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol I., p. 532 (1865). 



t Nov. Zool,, Vol. XII , p 234-5 (igos)- 



\ Proc. Linn, See. N,S. Wales, Vol, I., (2nd ser.), p. 1098, (1886). 



I Proc. Linn. Soc. N S. 'Aales, Vol, II., p. in (1S77). 



§ Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 220 (1884). 



