182 



MELIPIIAGID.S 



and refeis it to the Ceiihiit airicapilla of Latham, while pointing out that the latter mal<es no 

 reference in his description to the very characteristic white band on the occiput. 



The Lunulated or Black-capped Honey-eater is the commonest species of the genus 

 Melithreptus inhabiting New South Wales and Victoria, its range extending into South Australia. 

 In New South Wales it is freely dispersed throughout the sapling scrubs of the coastal districts, 

 heavily timbered mountain ranges and open forest lands inland, and is equally common in the 

 large public parks and gardens of Sydney. 



A tame and fearless species it may be often seen clinging in all conceivable positions while 

 it e.xplores the blossoms of the Eucalypti or the flowering spikes of Grass-trees in search of nectar 

 and pollen, or insects which constitutes its food. 



It utters a pee\ish kind of note, wliich may be closely imitated by one with the lips. 



The nest is a small deep cup-shaped structure, outwardly 

 formed of thin strips or shreds of stringy-bark, closely matted 

 together with cobwebs, and lined inside with cow-hair, fur, 

 feathers, wool, or other soft material. I exhibited a beautiful 

 nest of this species at a meeting of the Linnean Society of 

 New South Wales in September, 1897. It was found close 

 to a poultry farm and constructed almost entirely of white 

 fowl's feathers and white cow-hair, woven and held together 

 with fine strips of bark-fibre and a few pieces of string. An 

 average nest measures externally two inches and a quarter in 

 diameter by two inches and a half in depth; the inner cup 

 measuring one inch and three-quarters in diameter by one 

 inch and three-quarters in depth. It is attached at the 

 rim to the drooping leafy twigs or a thin forked horizontal 

 branch of a tree, generally among the terminal twigs, at a 

 height varying from twelve to forty or fifty feet from the 

 ground, but sometimes it is placed withm hand's reach. 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, oval 

 or elongate oval in form, the shell being close grained, 

 smooth, and slightly lustrous. They vary in ground colour 

 from a rich flesh to a yellowish-buff, which is thickly freckled and spotted, particularly on the 

 larger end with pale purplish- or chestnut-red, the markings frequently assutiiing the form of 

 a zone. In some specimens the markings consist of short streaks and blurred or penumbral 

 spots, or may be confined almost exclusively to a clouded band around the larger end, of a 

 slightly more pronounced reddish hue than the ground colour. A set of three taken at Belmore, 

 on the 17th September, 1898, measures: — Length (A) 0-75 x 0-55 inches; (B) 073 x 0-52 

 inches; (C) 074 x 0-52 inches. A set of two taken at Chatswood, on the 6th September, igoi, 

 measures: — Length (A) 0-83 x 0-55 inches; (B) 079 x 0-54 inches. 



Young birds differ from the adult and are extremely variable in colour. Of three young males 

 now before me, with the wing-measurement varying only from 27 to 2-85 inches, all are different. 

 One has the head, hind neck, back, and scapulars brown, with a slight indication of a yellowish 

 crescentic nape band; circumocular region blackish, all the under surface white, the throat and 

 fore neck slightly tinged with yellow. Another has the head brown mottled with black feathers 

 and a whitish nape band; the other procured by Mr. R. Grant, at Lithgow, has the head yellowish- 

 olive like the back, slightly washed with brown, nape band hardly visible; lores, cheeks, and 

 ear-coverts blackish, all the under surface white washed with yellow, more conspicuously on the 

 sides of the throat and fore neck. This is the largest specimen of the three, and yet there is no 



LUNULATKD HONKY-EATER. 



