122 MELIPHAGID.E. 



Gould. I have since, however, through the kindness of Mr. Macleay, been enabled to examine 

 several fine specimens obtained by his collector Edward Spalding, near Cooktown, and have no 

 doubt whatever of it being a fully adult bird of a distinct species. The original specimen referred 

 to in my ' List of Birds from Rockingham Bay,' was obtained by Spalding near Cardwell, and 

 was the only one seen during his stay in that locality; during my last natural history excursion 

 to those parts I was fortunate enough to obtain three others on the Herbert River, some thirty 

 miles south of Cardwell. It is a quiet retiring species in habits, resembling Ptilotis lei.niii and 

 frequents the scrubs and brushes fringing the Herbert River. Its note is a feeble cry resembling 

 that of Ptilotis chrysops. The young assume the plumage of the adult at an early stage. This 

 species, as far as it is yet known, has a very limited range, being confined to the bruslies and 

 scrubs of the east coast from the Herbert River to Cooktown, on the Endeavour River." 

 Subsequent research has only extended the distribution of this species to some of the higher 

 peaks of the Bellenden Ker Range. 



In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum." this species appears under Gould's 

 later name oi Ptilotis flavistriata. As it was subsequently found, Dr. Ramsay was quite correct 

 in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London," in placing a query against this species 

 being the young of Ptilotis versicolor. It is difficult to understand though, how Dr. H. Gadow,"'' 

 after Dr. Ramsay's careful description of Ptilotis ntacleayana and his remarks thereon, could 

 erroneously place Ptilotis maclcayana as a synonym of Ptilotis versicolor.] 



Gould's figures of this species in his " Birds of New Guinea," under the name of Ptilotis 

 flavostriata,\ are too highly coloured and the markings are too symmetrical. The triangular 

 shaped mark at the tips of the feathers of the hind neck and mantle do not follow one another 

 down in straight lines, nor are the under parts so distinctly streaked with yellow as is there 

 represented. 



Collecting on behalf of the Trustees of the Australian Museum, Messrs. E. J. Cairn and 

 R. Grant obtained some fine examples of this species at Boar Pocket and on some of the higher 

 peaks of the Bellenden Ker Range. 



Mr. Frank Hislop writes me as follows: — " Macleay's Honey-eater is generally met with in 

 the scrub in the Bloomfield River District, all the year round, but I have never found its nest. 

 The food of this Honey-eater consists chiefly of insects and small wild fruits." 



With a skin sent from Hambledon near Cairns, Mr. A. F. Smith, writes as follows: — 

 "I shot this bird on the 2nd September, 1905, while feeding among the blossom of a scrub tree, 

 and saw several of them in different places about the same time. Their food consists of small 

 wild fruits and berries. They are very quiet and I have not heard them utter a sound." 



A nest taken by Mr. J. A. Boyd from a Man^o tree near the Herbert River on the i6th 

 December, 1896, is a deep cup-shaped structure, slung by the rim to a thin forked horizontal 

 branch. It is composed chiefly of cocoa-nut fibre, with which is intermingled on the lower 

 portion a few small broad leaves, skeletons of leaves, the outer covering from the stem of a Miisa 

 and the paper-like bark of a Melaleuca, and some egg-bags of spiders. In the lining which is 

 composed entirely of cocoa-nut fibre are two feathers from the lower portion of the breast of 

 Ptilotis macleayana, and evidently detached from the female while sitting. Externally it measures 

 three inches and a quarter in diameter by four inches in depth; internally two inches and a 

 quarter in diameter by two inches and a half in depth. 



The eggs from the above nest are two in number, oval in form, the shell being close-grained, 

 smooth and slightly lustrous. They are of a pale fleshy-buff ground colour, sprinkled over 

 with numerous distinct but very minute dots and freckles of chestnut-red, which are darker and 



• Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit Mus , Vol. IX , p. 232 {1884). f hoc. cit.. p 235 (1884). 

 J Gould, Bds. New Guinea, Vol III., p. 50 (1S76). 



