196 MELIPHAGID.E. 



externally ivith whitish-grey ; tail brown, all but tlie lateral feathers edged externally roith olive-yellotv, 

 the central pair being edged on both webs; forehead, crown of head, lores, a line of feathers below the 

 eye, the ear-coverts and upper portion of hind neck black; a band of feathers commencing at the bare 

 space behind the eye and extending around the occiput, pure white: cheeks and sides of throat pure 

 white; chin black; remainder of the under surface white, the centre of the upper throat blackish grey 

 passing into an ashy shade on the fore neck and breast; under tail-coverts white; bill black ; naked 

 skin above and behind the eye "bright yelloir" (Andrews). Total length <1 inches, wing 3'3, tail 27 

 bill 0;58, tarsus 0'75. 



Adult female — .Similar in plumage to the male. 



J)istributio7i — North-western Australia, Queensland, South Australia. 

 Al^HE type of this very distinct species was described by Gould from a specimen received 

 -L from the late Mr. F. G. Waterhouse, a former Director of the South Australian 

 Museum, Adelaide, in 1875,* who wrote Gould as follows: — "Mr. F. W. Andrews, who for 

 many years has been collecting birds in this colony, has just returned from the Lake Eyre 

 Expedition with a good collection of bird-skins. A new species of Mellthnftiis is the finest I 

 have ever seen of the genus; only four were shot, and I send you the best. The collector 

 remarks that when alive they had a bright yellow rim round the eyes." One of the co-types, 

 collected at the same time by the late Mr. F. \V. Andrews, was received by Dr. E. P. Ramsay 

 from the late Mr. F. G. Waterhouse, daring the same year, and is now in the collection of the 

 Australian Museum. The Yellow-backed, or as Gould calls it, the I^eautiful Honey-eater, is 

 widely distributed over the Australian continent. Specimens now before me, collected by the 

 late Captain W. E. Armit at the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, by Mr. E. J. Cairn and the 

 late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower at Derby, North-western Australia, are indistinguishable in 

 colour from the co-type collected by the late Mr. F. W. .Andrews in South Australia. Individual 

 variation e.xists though in this species in the same way as it does with its near ally, M. gularis, 

 and many others, the largest and brightest specimen in the collection being a fine old adult 

 male obtained by Mr. G. A. Keartland close to the camp of the Calvert Exploring Expedition, 

 near the junction of the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers in North-western Australia. Wing, 

 3-4 inches. Two specimens have the upper wing-coverts uniform in colour with the quills. 



Mr. G. A. Keartland writes me: — "During January, 1897, ^yna-V^ ^ocks oi Mdithycptus lactior 

 were seen among the Eucalyptus saplings and Baiihinia trees near the Fitzroy and Margaret 

 Rivers, in North-western Australia. They were very active, and so intent on searching for food 

 that they permitted me to approach within a few yards and fire three shots, before they were 

 disturbed. In April I saw others nearer Derby. They had then paired for breeding, and two 

 incomplete nests were found, suspended in the topmost branches of Mimosa and Baiiliinia trees." 



During the first week of February, 1899, Mr. E. J. Harris found this species nesting in the 

 same locality as Mr. Keartland had shot the birds. The nest was cup-shaped, built in the 

 drooping leafy twigs of a Baithinia, about ten feet from the ground, and contained a single egg. 

 The latter is oval in form, gently tapering towards the smaller end, the shell being smooth and 

 slightly glossy, and is of a pale fleshy-buff ground colour, which gradually passes into a warm 

 reddish-buff in the larger end, where there are spots and blotches of a slightly darker hue, 

 intermingled with underlying markings of faint purplish-buff. Length, o'86 x o-6i inches. 

 This egg, which resembles a delicately coloured variety of that of Pfilotis auricomis, is represented 

 on Plate B. VL, fig. 7. 



In the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"! the type of Melithreptus ladior, Gould, 

 is stated to be apparently a very old male in full breeding plumage of Melithreptus gularis, and 



* Gould, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 4, Vol. XVI., pp 285-6. 

 t Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 206 (1884). 



