522 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



form, and of a deep reddish buff, strongly marked at the 

 larger end with deep chestnut-red and purplish grey ; the 

 remainder of the surface ornamented with large spots and 

 blotches of the same colour, somewhat thinly dispersed ; 

 their medium length is ten lines and a half by seven lines 

 in breadth. 



The sexes are so much alike that no visible difference is 

 perceptible, except in the smaller size of the female. 



Crown of the head, back of the neck, all the upper surface, 

 wings, and tail dark brown with a slight tinge of olive ; 

 throat and under surface dark greyish brown, the latter 

 colour predominating on the chest ; a fine line of black runs 

 from the nostrils through the eye ; this black line is bounded 

 below by a stripe of yellow which runs under the eye and 

 over the ear-covert, and below this runs another parallel 

 line of black, which commences at the base of the lower man- 

 dible and extends beyond the line of the ear-coverts ; imme- 

 diately above the eye behind is a small spot of yellow, and 

 behind the ear-coverts a like spot of white ; bill blackish 

 brown ; irides and eyelash dark brown ; legs leaden brown. 



Sp. 321. PTILOTIS FILIGERA, Gould. 



Streaked Honey-eater. 

 Ptilotis filigera, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xviii. p. 278. 



Ptilotis filigera, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol.. Supplement, pi. 



The F, filigera is one of the novelties which rewarded the 

 researches of Mr. Wilcox, who obtained two examples among 

 some mangroves at Cape York, where he observed it in com- 

 pany with another species of the same genus. Although a 

 dull-coloured species, it is rendered interestingly different 

 from all its congeners by the thread-like streak beneath the 

 ear-coverts, and by the small striae which decorate the back 

 of the neck and the upper part of the mantle. 



