128 MELIPHAGID.E. 



of the recorded lists of specimens of the numerous collections made in these parts. Neither 

 have I seen it in any collection made in the neighbourhood of Cairns, which is comparatively 

 only a short distance north of Cardweil, where it is coiiiiiion. Mr. B. Jardine, who has lived at 

 Cape York all his life, informs me that he has never met with P. flava on the Cape York 

 Peninsula, and Mr. Frank Hislop tells me that he has never seen it in the Bloomfield River 

 District. Gould's habitat given in his original description "North Coast of Australia," is 

 undoubtedly an error, as is also a similar one given to Ptilotis versicolor described on the same 

 page. 



W'lien resident at the Herbert River, North-eastern Queensland, Mr. J. A. Boyd forwarded 

 me a nest and several sets of eggs taken on Ripple Creek Plantation. 



The nest is a cup-shaped structure, and is chiefly composed of the brown hair-like fibre of 

 the cocoa-nut palm, with which is intermingled spiders' webs and a few narrow strips of bark. 

 It measures e.xternally three inches in diameter by two inches and three-quarters in depth, the 

 inner cup measuring two inches and a half in diameter by two inches in depth. This nest was 

 suspended by the rim to the thin leafy twigs of a Cumquat Orange Tree, one of the leaves being 

 worked into the side of the structure, and was within hand's reach of the ground. ?ilr. Boyd 

 remarks: — "All the nests taken by me were mostly composed of cocoa-nut fibre. I cannot say 

 what material Ptilotis flava used for building its nest before cocoa-nut trees were planted here, 

 but it could easily obtain supplies from decaying Palms and wild Bananas. Two nests were 

 built in a species of Fitiis, eighteen feet from the ground, another as high as thirty feet, and one 

 in a Mango tree about eight feet from the ground." 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, o\al m form, the shell being close-grained, smooth 

 and lustreless. In ground colour they vary from a almost pure white to a faint reddish-white, 

 which is thickly blotched towards the larger end with different shades of reddish-chestnut, or 

 pale purplish-red, with which are intermingled on some specimens similar underlying markings 

 of light purplish-grey. Others have large penumbral blotches, or those of one colour partially 

 overlying another, but in all as a rule they predominate chiefly on the larger end where they are 

 confluent and frequently form a more or less well defined zone. A set of two taken by Mr. 

 J. A. Boyd, on the i6th January, iSgo, measures: — Length (A) 0-87 x 0-62 inches; (B) o-g x 

 o'65 inches. A set of two taken on the 7th December, 1892, measure: — Length (A) 0-87 x 0-63 

 inches; (B) 0^84 x o'63 inches. 



In addition to the dates quoted above, Mr. Boyd informed nie tliat a boy brought him a 

 nest and two eggs oi P. flava on the loth November, i8g2, that he had taken that day. Mr. Boyd 

 found a nest with two nearly fledged young on the 2nd October, 1893, and another on the same 

 day with two eggs. On the 31st October, 189-I-, he saw this species building, and on the 9th 

 No\ember found a nest with two fresh eggs. 



Ptilotis flavescens. 



YELLOW-TINTED HONEY-EiTER. 



Ptilotis flavescens, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1839, p. 144; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. IV., pi. 41 



(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 517 (186.5); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 



IX., p. 24.5 (1884). 



Adult male — General coloiir above very pale broivn 'cashed with yellow, wliich is more pronounced 



on the rump and upper tail-coverts, these parts in some specimens being distinctly tinged with isabelline; 



quills brown, ivhitish around the tips of the secondaries and all but the outermost two on either side 



externally margined with bright olive-yellow; tail feathers broivn, ivhitish around their tips, the central 



pair margined on both webs, and the remainder on their outer webs only with bright olive-yellow; 



