183 



MELITHREPTUS. 



.nd.cat>on of black feathers on the crown of the head. There are specimens in U^ AustnrH^ 

 Museum collection w.th only one or two brown feathers on the crown of the head, othe.w.se 

 they are in fully adult plumage. 



About the outlying suburbs of Sydney, .August and the five following months -nstUute the 

 normi brleding sea'so^ although I saw two fledgeHngs being fed by t^- parents at Ca^^^^^^^^^^^ 

 on the a6th August, 1893. At F.ve Dock, on the X3th September, rSg. I -^ b-^; ;^;;/^ "^ 

 building three partially constructed nests, all were placed among the ^^^^^ f ^^'^ "^^ .'J;^ 

 toDS of Turpentine-trees from fifteen to twenty feet from the ground. On the 24th September 

 sTs, t cTaLood, in company with Mr. C. G. Johnston, I saw a bird -gaged urconsrucng 

 a ne t among the drooping leaves of a Eucalyptus forty feet from the ground, and also saw 

 rteX lin.s ma TurpentLe tree being fed by their parents. At Enfield I saw young ones be.ng 

 ?ed by th: parents on the 7th January, :8c,4. At least two broods are reared durmg the season. 

 The egg of the PalHd Cuckoo is frequently deposited in the nest of this spec.es. 



Melithreptus chloropsis. 



WESTERN LUNULATED HONEY-EATER. 

 MeHtkr.,.us cMoropsis, Uould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1847, p. 2.0: uL, Bds. Austr., fol.. Vol. IV., pi. 73 

 (1848); id-, Ha.uU.k. lids Austr., Vol. I, p. 570 (186d) 

 ADULT MALE-Z.A. the aduU ,„a/.o/ Meuthrkptus atb.c.pillus, l..t\....hutlaryer,and 

 ^■ka.ing tke bare space above tke eye of a pale yreea instead ofred^ (Gould). Total lenyik o:> ..cl.es, 

 wing 3-2, tail 2-3 bill O'oS, taraus 0-75. 



Adult female -Similar in plumage to the male, hut slightly smaller. 



Distribution^W estem Australia. 



^^HE Western Lunulated Honey-eater is closdy allied to the precedmg ^P--" J" ^'^^ 



T Cataloc^ue of Birds in the British Museum"^ Dr. H. Gadow places Mcl,tkrept,s 



chlorops^s as a synLym of the former, but in the Ust of specimens enumerated, there appears to 



oTone examined from Western Australia. In addition to the ^-tinctive characters poined 



out by Gould the comparative longer bill of M. chloropus, will assist m distinguishing t from 



h Eas?ern f;rm. This is most marked in some specimens collected by Mr. George Masters at 



K n. G or.e's Sound, m November, :868, and in an adult male kindly sent me for exammation 



bM^ Edwin Ashb , and obtained by him at Guildford, near Perth, Western Australia in 



Xu.u 190: Like McUtkreptus brevuostris, there appears to be a seasonal change in the colour 



of^ebare space above the eye, for Gould remarks:-" naked space above the eye greenish- 



white, in others a pale wine-yellow." 



In his "Handbook to the Birds of Australia,-] Gould states:- The nest of ^'^f-P'^ 

 chloropsis is usually suspended from the small branches near the top of the gum trees where h 

 foha/e IS thickest, which renders it extremely difficult to detect. A nest found by Gdbert in 

 O t^ber was form d of sheep's wool and small twigs; another found by him in November, was 

 ^tlchedTo a small myrtle-like tree, in a thick gum forest, not more than three feet from the 

 ground both these nests contained three eggs, nine and a half lines long by si.x and a half lines 

 broad f a deep reddish-bufT, thickly spotted all over, but particularly at the larger end, with 

 dark ;eddish-bLn^^ome^fU^e^^ 



• Gadow. Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX.. p. 204 (1884). 

 t Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr.. Vol. I., p. 571 (1865)- 



