194 



MKLIPHAOID.B. 



Port Lincoln, South Australia, in 1865; at Wide Bay, Queensland, in September, 1867; and 

 at King George's Sound, Western Australia, in 1868. Mr. Kendal Broadbent met with it near 

 Rockhampton, also in the Chinchilla District, about two hundred miles west of Brisbane. 

 From the Trustees of the South Australian Museum I have received adult and young specimens 

 for examination, obtained by Dr. A. Morgan at Laura, about one hundred and forty miles north 

 of Adelaide, and one skin from Mildura, Victoria. Mr. Edwin Ashby, also sent me a specimen he 

 procured at Blackwood, South Australia, and writes as follows: — " Mclithreptus gularis is one 

 of our commonest birds at Blackwood, and its loud cry is to be heard throughout the year, but 

 more especially in early spring. The male has a very sweet song, quite in contrast to its 

 ordinary loud and almost discordant cry. I always think this species makes more noise in 

 proportion to its size than any other bird. When the Eucalyptus Icucoxylon is in flower this bird 

 is present in great numbers. There are plenty of young birds to be seen in the season, but the 

 nests are difficult to get." 



Dr. W. A. Angove, who forwarded to the Trustees of the Australian Museum a nest and a 

 set of eggs taken at Tea-tree Gully, near Adelaide, writes : — " AJelithyeptus gularis is found 

 throughout the Mount Lofty Range, and on the foothills towards Adelaide. Nearly all the nests 

 we find or hear of are built in Blue-gum trees, though they occasionally nest in Red gums. 

 The drooping ends of the outside branches of fairly grown saplings are the places they choose, 

 and it is always difficult to get to their nests." Writing on the 21st February, 1907, he 

 remarks : — I have just received a set of fresh eggs of .ydithreptus gularis, taken in this district." 



The preceding descriptions are taken from specimens obtained on the i8th April, 1894, by 

 Mr. J. A. Thorpe and myself at Toongabbie, eighteen miles west of Sydney. There are also 

 examples in the Australian Museum collection procured at Homebush and Eastern Creek, in 

 1864, by Mr. George Masters; Mr. R. Grant has also shot this bird at Five Dock, on the 

 Parramatta River, and on two occasions I have observed it at Roseville. Individual \ariation 

 exists in this species. Some specimens show hardly any trace of the lighter edges to the 

 quills. An adult female, shot by Mr. R. Grant, from a flock of three, at Buckiinguy 

 Station, is of a richer olive-yellow on the upper parts, and the under parts are paler than 

 specimens procured near the coast, and is almost intermediate in colour between Mclithreptus 

 gularis and M. ladior. Somewhat similar in colour on the upper parts is an adult specimen in 

 the South Australian Museum, obtained by Dr. A. M. Morgan, at Laura, South Australia, in 

 1894, the underparts having a more decided creamy tinge, like specimens in the Australian 

 Museum collection procured at Homebush. 



The stomachs of four specimens procured at Toongabbie while feeding among the flowering 

 Eucalypti contained the larvae of insects, and also in one, a few seeds. 



In the neighbourhood of Sydney and elsewhere in New South \\'ales this Honey-eater is 

 nomadic in habits, appearing in limited numbers some seasons and then it may be absent 

 for years. Gould, who described the type from a specimen obtained in New South 

 Wales, remarks that he " observed it to be tolerably numerous on the plains in the 

 neighbourhood of the Nanioi River."" I failed to meet with it, however, during two seasons I 

 made excursions to different parts of that river. Mr. E. H. Lane sent me for examination a 

 nest, with two eggs and skin of the parent bird, he procured at Wambangalang Station, nineteen 

 miles from Dubbo, relative to which he writes me: — "The only nest of Mclithreptus gularis \ 

 have taken was one found here by my son when it was building. It was in a box sapling, 

 about fourteen feet from the ground. I left it until the bird had been sitting for several days, 

 so as to be sure of a full set of eggs, which proved to be two. I took this nest on the 5th 

 November, 1892, and shot the bird, which I sent to you with the nest and eggs for identification. 



• Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 566 (1S65). 



