213 



Me, tinged u^Uh yellow; under tail-coverts yellon: Total length J,2.J inches, wing 2:?, tail IS, 

 bill 0-S8, tarsus OSS. 



Adult female— ,S'imi/flr in plumage to the male. 

 Distribution— Western Australia. 

 ^6> OULD originally described the Green-backed, or Western Silver-eye, which is confined 

 Gr to the south-western portions of the continent, in the " Proceed.ngs of the Zoolog cal 

 Society" in 1840, under the name of Zosterops cMoyonotus. The latter distmcUve apellat.on be ng 

 preoccupied by VieiUot in xSiy for a species inhabiting Mauritius, in X850 Bonaparte ded.cated 

 the present species to Gould. 



On the under surface Z. gouU. more closely resembles Z. ve.eta, but ^-^^^f J^;;;^^^;;;^^ 

 be easily distin^^uished by its uniform olive-green upper parts. In the Austiahan Museum 

 11 ;l: a^ specimens procured by Mr. George Masters in .868-, at King ^eor^s So^ 

 An adult male obtained on the 24th March, 1869, has the flanks of a distmctly darker shade ot 

 broCn "thers procured in September and November ^^f-''^^J^:::X^:Z 

 equally destructive to cultivated fruits as its eastern congener Z.ateraks, :s ^^o- by U -1 

 names of Grape- and Fig-eater, applied to it by the early colomsts o the Swan R. . D str c 

 Gould adds further testimony to its fruit-eating prochv>t:es m h.s Handbook o he Birds of 

 Australia,-: ..here he writes :-"^s../. ,ouU. constitutes a beautiful ^ZlZs ^^^e^s 

 crulescens of the southern and eastern coasts. As might be ^PP^^^^' ^^^^^^^^ ;; J^ "^ 

 actions, and economy of two species so nearly allied are very simi ar; hence the -"ler of Swa 

 nter were not long m discovering that they had found no friends to their gardens during th 

 fersonlhen the fruits are ripening, whatever good it may effect by the destruction of msec 

 other periods. Gilbert informed me that "this bird is particularly fond of figs and grapes, it 



rlequ ntly abounds in all the gardens where these plants are cultivated ; and --^e-o 

 seen as numerous as sparrows in England. The breeding season ^^^^^^^^'^^''^l^;^^^ 

 ends in November; those nests that came under my observation during the earher part of the 

 eason in -bly ontained two eggs, but in October and November I usually found the number 

 o be"; r ased to three, and upon one occasion to four. The nest is small, compact, and formed 

 of d i dTy rasses, b^und together with the hairy tendrils of small plants and wool the mside 

 being tnld I th very minute fibrous roots; its breadth is about two inches, and depth one inch. 

 The eggs are greenish-blue, without spots or markings, eight lines long by six lines broad. 



Zosterops albiventer. 



PALE-liREASTED SILVEE-EYE. 

 Zosterops a centre blanc, Homb. et Jacq., Voy. POle Sud, Atlas pi. 19, tig. 3 (1S44). 

 Zosterops albi^entris, Reichb., Handbk. Merop. p. 92, Taf. 461, fig. 3298 (1852); Jacq. et Puche.-an 

 Voy. Pole Sud, Zool., Tom III., p. 95 (1853); Salvad.,Orn. Pap. et Molucc. Pt.u„p. 366(1.61). 



T^ T- c< XT « \v Vnl T n 56(1876): North, Proc. Linn. 

 ZoHerops flavogularis, Masters, Proc. Linn. See. N.S.^^ ., ^ ol. 1., p. K^ )> 



Soc. KS.W., 2nd ser., Vol. IL, p. 408 (1887). 

 Zosterops albiventer, Sharps, Cat. Eds. Brit. Mus., Vol. IX , p. 164 (1884). 



^ouLTMALE-(;en.mZ colour above olive-yello.c, of a clearer yelloro on the upper tail-coverts; 

 .,,;. .ing-coverts like the back; ,uills brou,n, externally margined .oith olive-yelou., more Iroadlyon 

 7JLerLstsecondaries,theap^calportionoftheoutermostprimariesnarror^yedgedM 



TilJZ.rs brorcn externally edged .oith yellon,; head olive-yello. ; a ru^ of feathers around the 

 « Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr.. Vol. I., p. 589 (1865)- 



