144 



MKLIPIIAGID.E. 



from tree to tree. They used to delight in congregating close together near the lower ends of 

 long strips of bark pendant from the trunks of the larger Eucalypti, which swayed to and fro m 

 every breeze, and from one of them three Helmeted Honey-eaters fell at the discharge of my gun. 

 They were the first specimens I ever preserved and made into skins, one of which has been 

 since mounted and is now in the Australian Museum. Many a time afterwards, in my 

 early collecting days, did I swing myself pendulum-like on one of these long pieces of hanging 

 stringy bark, either alone, or with one or more companions. A few years after this part of the 

 country was settled upon, the aspect gradually changed. The tall straight stemmed Eucalypti 

 were felled, their trunks split up into palings or posts and rails, and the thick undergrowth cut 

 down and burnt off. The little that was left except in the beds of the creeks, or that had grown 

 up again, was eventually cleared off by a devastating bush fire, and this species of Honey-eater 

 was afterwards seldom seen. 



I have received through Mr. G. A. Keartland. for examination, a set of two eggs taken by 

 the late Mr. James Gillespie, at Olinda Creek, Lilydale, about twenty miles from Melbourne. 

 They are oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth and lustreless, and are of a pale 

 reddish-flesh ground colour, over which is sprinkled distinct dots, spots, flecks and small irregular 

 shaped markings of chestnut and chestnut-red, predominating on the larger end, where the 

 ground colour is of a slightly richer hue, intermingled with a few underlying spots of purplish- 

 grey. On one specimen, some of the dots assume the form of an almost perfect circle, crossed 

 through the centre with a distinct band of spots. Length (A) 0-1)4 x 0-65 inches; (B) o'88 x 

 0-64 inches. The eggs of this species are indistinguishable from those of its close ally Ptilotis 

 auricomis. 



In the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"- Dr. H. Gadow records the habitat of 

 Ptilotis cassidix, &s"\\ctor\&,Son\.\\ Australia, and interior of Australia." South-eastern \'ictoria, 

 however, may be regarded as its almost exclusive habitat. I have seen specimens from many 

 parts of South Gippsland, the vicinity of the eastern shores of Western Port Bay, but never 

 from the western side, also from Lilydale about twenty miles east of Melbourne, and from the 

 Dandenong Ranges. How far its range may extend in a north-easterly direction time alone 

 will prove. Although somewhat similar country as it inhabits in \'ictoria, is found in the south- 

 eastern portions of New South Wales, it has not been recorded from this State. The range of 

 the Helmeted Honey-eater is undoubtedly the most restricted of any of the numerous species 

 of the Family Meliphagida inhabiting the south-eastern portion of the Australian continent. 



Ptilotis leucotis. 



WHITE-EARED HOXEY-EATEE. 

 Turdus leucotis, Lath., Ind. Orii., p. xliv. (1801). 



Ptilotis leucotis, Gould, Bds. Aust., fol.. Vol. IV^., pi. 36 (18-tS); id., Handbk., Bds, Austr., Vol I. 

 p. 510 (1865); Gadow, Cat. i!ds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 240 (1884). 



Adult male — General colour yellowish-olive ; upper wiug-cocerts like the back; quills brown 

 edged externally unth olive-yellow, tlte outer uehs of the innermost secondaries dull olive-yelloir : tail 

 feathers brotvn, the central pair viargined with dull yellowish-olive on both, webs, the remainder 

 margined on their outer webs only, tips of the lateral feathers while, increasing in size towards the 

 outermost one on either side; forehead grey; crown of the head and nape grey streaked with black; 

 lores and a line of feathers extending over the eye, sides of the head and nape black; ear coverts pure 

 tohite; cheeks, throat and fore neck black: feathers of the breast and abdomen dull yelloivish-olive 



• Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 243 (1884). 



