152 MKLIPIIAGID.E. 



apparently deserted about a month, from a nest on the 12th June, 1903. A pair of Fantails 

 (■Sauloprocta melakuca) used often to try and build in a tree in front of the house, but as fast as 

 they built these Honey-eaters would pull it to pieces; sometimes they would let them get as far 

 as laying the eggs, and would then destroy the nest." 



A nest of this species received from Mr. Charles French, Junr., is a deep cup-shaped 

 structure formed throughout chiefly of pieces of yellowish-white inner bark of a Melakuca, with 

 which is intermingled a small quantity of fibre, and on the outside spiders' web. It is suspended 

 by the rim to a drooping leafy fork, the nest being higher at the junction of the fork than the 

 opposite side measuring e.xternally five inches and a half, and on the lower side four inches by 

 three inches and a half in diameter, the inner cup measuring two inches and a quarter in diameter 

 and the average depth two inches and a half. This nest was taken from a drooping branch of a 

 tree near the Daly River, in the Northern Territory of South Australia, on the 29th January, 

 1902, and contained two eggs. Mutilated skins were also received with the nest. 



The eggs are two in number for a sitting, oval in form the shell being close-grained, smooth 

 and slightly lustrous. They vary from pure white to fleshy-white, some specimens being minutely 

 dotted, spotted, and sparingly blotched with red and purplish-red and fainter underlying markings 

 of the latter colour predominating chiefly on the larger end but not confluent, or assuming the 

 form of a zone. This type is not unlike the eggs of Monairha iiiclauopsis. Others with the 

 exception of a few small dots are heavily blotched on the lai'ger end with red and purplish-red, 

 some of the markings appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. Length (A) o'9 x 0-67 

 inches; (B) o-88 x 0-67 inches. 



Plectorhynchus lanceolatus. 



LANCEOLATED HONEY-EATEK. 

 Flectorhyncha lanceolata, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 153 ; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. IV., 



pi. 47 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 525 (1865). 

 Plectorhynchus lancrolat.us. Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 208 (1884). 



Adult male. — Ge.nfral colour above ijreyish-hroivn irifli Itmatl hldrl'ixh-hroiun centres t<i the /'eathers 

 on the hack, these darker centres less distinct on the scujuilm:^ miil nniiii, and redund f,, a narrow 

 shaft-streak on the ujiper tail-coverts; les.^i-r and iiii'dhni mifur iri ini-rnrrrts (/reyLsh-hm/ni, Ihf lotti-r 

 whitish at tlo' fills : i/reater winy-coverts and t/iii/ls lirn/ni rjirnm/fi/ iii<tr<iiiiid icith t'uihl iirii/tsh- 

 hrowmvhich passes iiitu olmi'st j,iirr /rhifc unm itd flif ti/is : /,-iil!i,-rs cm tin- rruim nf thr Jnnd and 

 nape greyish-white, centml ii-lth lihii-U'isli-tinuni : i'(tr-rorrrls, sidrs of mu-k mid hind mrk ii-Iiitf, 

 streakedwith hlackisli-broW)i ; chin and thmnt ivhite; remainder of tin imdrr siirfiirf mid imdir toil- 

 coverts dull white, some of the feathirs mi tin- sides of the fore neck iiortinlly Uhu-k, iimri- portii-idorly 

 on their outer wehs, thusr mi M-- hmist. sidrs of tin' ntidmnin. mid tin' under tail-coverts having a very 

 narrow hroivn shnft-strmk : hill dm-k Unishhrn-n rulmir. lii/hlrr nt thf base 0/ the loiver mandible; 

 legs and feet light slnty-bl ne .- iris linnrn. Total length in tin jlrsh S:S inches, icing Jf-'>, tail 4, 

 bill 0-75, tarsus Vo'i. 



Adult FEM.*.lk — i-imilar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 

 /T^HE present species, which may be distinguished by the long lanceolate feathers on the 

 -L fore neck, is chiefly an inhabitant of the inland portions of the eastern States. 

 Among e.xamples in the Australian Museum collection are specimens obtained by Mr. George 



