184 MELIPUAGID.E. 



Melithreptus albigularis. 



WHITE-CHINNED HONEY-EATEE. 

 Melithreptus albogtdaris, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, ISIV, p. 220 ; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. IV., pi. 74 



(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 571 (1865). 

 Melithreptus albigularis, (subsp.) Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus,, Vol. IX., p. 205 (1884). 

 Melithreptus albigularis, North, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. XXX., p. 395 (1905). 



Adult male— Z)?//«C6' from the adult male o/' MELiTiiREprrs atricapillus, Latham, in liacing 

 the upper parts rich olive-yelloiv, and the less amount of black on the sides of the head, ivliich extends 

 only so far down as the base of the -upper mandible, leaving the lower portion of the cheeks and the 

 chin tvhite, these parts being black in M. atricapillus; bare skin behind the eye dull greenish-blue. 

 Total length in the flesli o:'i inches, wing '2-8, tail 2 25, bill 0:5, tarsus OiiS. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly stnnller. 



Distribution — North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, 

 Northern New South Wales, South-eastern New Guinea. 



^^IIE present species is one of the most widely distributed members of the genus Melithreptus 

 It is an inhabitant of the coastal districts of North-western Australia, the Northern 

 Territory of South Australia, Northern and Eastern Queensland, Northern New South Wales, 

 and South-eastern New Guinea. There are specimens in the Australian Museum collection, 

 from South-eastern Queensland, procured by Mr. Geort,'e Masters at Wide Bay in 1867, and 

 Gayndah in 1870; others from farther north obtained at Port Denison, Cardwell, and Cape 

 York; from the Northern Territory of South Australia, specimens obtained at Port Essington 

 and Port Darwin, and an example from Derby North-western Australia. Mr. George Masters 

 has recorded specimens obtained at Cape York, during the Voyage of the "Chevert," and Dr. 

 E. P. Ramsay has noted it from the Gulf of Carpentaria, and from the neighbourhood of Derby, 

 North-western Australia from specimens procured there by Mr. E. J. Cairn, also the Laloki 

 River, South-eastern New Guinea, in a collection of birds made there by the late Mr. A. Goldie. 

 Count Salvador! records it among a collection of birds made by Dr. L. Loria, at Port Darwin, 

 and recently Dr. II. Hartert records examples from the Fitzroy River, North-western Australia, 

 and from different localities in the Northern Territory of South Australia. 



Gould's specific name of albigularis is not one that will serve to distinguish this species from 

 either Melithreptus atricapillus, or M. chlovopsis, so I have here adopted the vernacular name of 

 White-chinned Honey-eater, Gould also having previously used the name of White-throated 

 Honey-eater for his Entomophila albigularis. 



Both Dr. H. Gadow and Dr. E. Hartert regard Melithreptus albigularis as only subspecifically 

 distinct from Melithreptus atricapillus, Latham, (= M. lunulatus, Shaw). With a series of skins 

 before me from Derby, North-western Australia to Wide Bay, South-eastern Queensland, I do 

 not share this view, nor can I find any intergradation between the two species. 



That it is an entirely distinct species has since been proved by the receipt of three specimens 

 in the flesh from Mr. George Savidge, obtained by him at Copmanhurst, on the Clarence River, 

 in September 1905, the bare space behind the eye being dull greenish-blue, not bright orange- 

 scarlet as in Melithreptus atricapillus. This was the first occasion this species had been recorded 

 in New South Wales. '^ 



The wing measurement of an adult male of M. alhigularis, obtained by Mr. E. J. Cairn, at 

 Derby, North-western Australia, is 275 inches; an adult male procured by Mr. George Masters 



* Proc. Linn. Soc N.S. Wales, Vol. XXX., p. 395 (1905'. 



