■-'10 ZOSTEROPID.i;. 



In Australia it chiefly frequents the coastal and contiguous districts, and does not occur in the 

 dry and arid portions of the States. 



In describing Zosterops K'csterncnsis, Quoy and Gainiard, in the " Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum"''' Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe makes the following observations: — "An Australian 

 specimen has been described, and it is extraordinary that a bird which seems to be widely 

 distributed on that continent should so much have escaped notice, the only allusion to the 

 species that I can find in Mr. Gould's work being a passage where he mentions that some 

 specimens of Zosicrops candcsccns have the "throat wax-yellow." It seems to be the Z. 

 ^e'cstcrucnsis (Q. and G.), a species re-instated in the system by Hartlaub (J. f. O., 1865, p. 20.)" 



As pointed out by me in the "Records of the Australian Museum,"! after the collection of 

 a large series of skins, at different seasons, in the neighbourhood of Sydney, Z. iK'esterncnsis, 

 Quoy and Gaimard is only the spring and summer livery of Z. lateralis. 



Taking the two extremes of winter and summer plumage here described, it can be easily 

 understood why each should be thought to belong to a distinct species, and it is only where one 

 has these birds under daily observation, and obtains specimens during every week of the year, 

 that the intermediate stage, or the gradual transition from one phase of plumage to the other, is 

 observed. Typical examples of Z. lateralis with the deep tawny-buff flanks and grey throat, the 

 autumn and winter attire of this species, may be obtained in the neighbourhood of Sydney, from 

 the middle of .\pril until the end of August. Some specimens, however, are to be found during 

 June that have not quite lost the summer plumage, and in August others that have already 

 begain to attain their spring livery; these birds have the yellow throat more or less clearly 

 defined. In fact there are specimens in the Australian Museum collection that I shot in company 

 with each other, at Manly on the 13th July, 1888. One is a typical Z. lateralis, in winter 

 plumage, the other has a yellow throat, paler than in the breeding plumage, and the flanks light 

 tawny-buff, and not nearly so dark as the typical winter, or even autumn plumage. Dr. E. P. 

 Ramsay, who was with me at the time, then identified the former as Z. carulescens and the latter 

 as Z. westernensis. There is also another specimen in the collection obtained at Greendale, near 

 Manly, exactly eight years later, by the late Mr. H. J. Ackland. It has the pale yellow throat, 

 but the flanks are slightly darker than the specimen I procured. Both of these specimens 

 were obtained durmg periods of drought. On the contrary, I have never met with a specimen 

 having the flanks deep tawny-buff in spring or summer. Usually the first indications of losing 

 it, and at the same time acquiring the yellow throat, are seen during a normal winter, about 

 the second week in August, in some seasons a fortnight earlier ; but in two specimens examined 

 the grey throat was retained as late as the igth September. During August and September, 

 however, the gradual transition from the winter to spring plumage is slowly taking place, and by 

 the middle of October not a bird is to be seen with the ashy throat and deep tawny-buff flanks. 

 Specimens obtained in November and December have the throats of a brighter yellow than at 

 any other time of the year. In late summer the throat is slightly paler than in the spring, and 

 this livery is retained until the beginning of March. The flanks then become darker, increasing 

 in intensity of colour from that time forward, the yellow feathers on the throat gradually pass 

 into grey, until the autumn livery is again fully assumed by the greater number of birds at the 

 end of April. All through the year specimens may be procured with the under tail-coverts pale 

 yellow or washed with yellow; the birds with the under tail-coverts dull white are more often 

 obtained during winter. These observations were made entirely from birds seen, or specimens 

 obtained, in the neighbourhood of Sydney. 



In New South Wales the Silver-eye is freely distributed over the eastern portion of the 

 State, but is far more numerous in the coastal districts. During the autumn and winter months 



• Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 156 (1S84). 

 f. North, Rec. Aust. Mus , Vol. II., p. 98 (1896.) 



