112 MKLIPHAGID.t. 



Stripe is bordered above and below with a line of black; chin and upper throat greyish-ivhite, passing 

 into ashybron-a on the lower throat, fore neck, chest, and flanks; abdomen dull white streaked with 

 didlbroivn on the sides; under tail-coverts while streaked with dull brown; under wing coverts pale 

 fulvous; bill black; legs and feet bluish-slate colour; iris bluish-grey. Total length in the flesh (rS 

 inches, tiing ■!:-.', tail 2-S, bill <)'5-i, tarsus ()-77 . 



Adult femalk — Similar in plumage to tin' male. 



Distribution— Q\xeQns\a.-ad, New South Wales, \'ictoria, South AustraHa. 

 /T^HE Yellow-faced Honey-eater is freely distributed throughout portions of Queensland, 

 i New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. It evinces a decided preference for 



sapling scrubs and the contiguous mountain ranges of the coastal districts. In Victoria I found 

 it unusually plentiful around the shores of Western Port Bay, and in far more limited numbers 

 in the heavy undergrowth of the timber clad Sirzelecki Ranges of South Gippsland. Near 

 Sydney it is common, frequenting the parks and gardens of the city as well as those of the 

 surrounding suburbs, where from the resemblance of the sound of its merry cheerful notes, 

 which is usually repeated several times in succession, it is locally known as the "Chick-up"; 

 frequently too, its note is varied with "quitch-up-quitch-up." Inland it is common on the Blue 

 Mountains, where it may be found fr^iuenting some of the loftiest Eucalypti, but I have never 

 seen a specimen from the dry western portion of the State. :Mr. A. F. Smith sent me a dried 

 specimen for determination, that he had shot on the Bellenden Ker Range, Queensland. 



From Port Augusta, South Australia, Dr. A. Chenery writes me:—' Ftilotis chrysops is not 

 at all common here. An odd pair are generally to be seen in the Flinders Range, but I have 

 never met with it on the plains. I found only one of their nests with eggs, and that was in iSgg." 



Mr. Edwin Ashby sends me the following note from Blackwood, South Australia: — 

 "Although Ptilotis chrvsops occurs here, it is more numerous on the eastern side of the range 

 near :Mount Barker. It is the earliest species to nest in that neighbourhood." 



There is but little variation in adult birds obtained in different parts of the continent. 

 The wing of an adult male obtained at Cardwell in April 1874, is 3-2 inches, which is the average 

 measurement of birds obtained in the neighbourhood of Sydney. 



Its normal food, away from the haunts of man, which is chiefly obtained among the flowering 

 Eucalypti, consists of the nectar and pollen of flowers and insects. Orchardists and vignerons 

 however, frequently suffer as much loss through the depredations of partially insectivorous birds, 

 as those species who depend entirely for their subsistence on fruits and berries. The Yellow- 

 faced Honey-eater is an incorrigible eater of cultivated fruits, and does but little towards 

 counterbalancing the damage done, by ridding the orchardist's trees of injurious insects and 

 their larvffi. One fact, however, cannot be overlooked. As our forests of Eucalypti and other 

 nectar-bearing trees are cleared, ring-barked, or destroyed by drought or bush-fires, so will birds 

 who derived their food from these trees be driven more into those areas under cultivation, and 

 especially into orchards and vineyards. At Port Hacking, where these birds are common, 

 I was informed that they preyed upon the laden bees returning to the hives, but personally I 

 did not see an instance of it, although several birds were nesting in trees in close proximity to 

 the hives. The Dusky Wood Swallow (Artaiuus sordidus), however, was a great offender in 

 this respect, and I saw many birds shot, while engaged in killing these industrious insects. 



The nest is a neat cup-shaped structure formed of very fine dead grasses and bark-fibre, 

 held together with a fine network of cobweb, or green mosses, the rim being securely worked 

 over a thin forked horizontal twig. In the coastal districts it is a somewhat scanty structure, 

 and the eggs may be frequently seen through the bottom or sides if the bird is not sitting. When 

 built in mountain ranges the whole e.xterior of the nest is often thickly coated with bright green 

 mosses, and the inside lined with the soft downy brown covering of the newly budded fronds of 



