INSESSORES. 



555 



coverts light greyish brown, in some specimens deepening 

 into buff; irides reddish brown; bill black; legs dark 

 brown. 



Total length 5^ inches ; bill 1^ ; wing 2| ; tail 2^ ; tarsi f . 



Genus MYZOMELA, Vigors and Horsfield. 



Five well-marked species of this genus are distributed over 

 Austraha; numerous others are found in New Guinea and 

 the neighbouring islands ; the form also occurs in the Poly- 

 nesian Islands. 



Sp.341. MYZOMELA SANGUINOLENTA. 



Sanguineous Honey-eater. 



Certhia sanguinolenta, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp. p. xxxvii. 



dibapha, Lath, ib., p. xxxvii. 



erythropygia, Lath, ib., p. 38. 



australasia, Leach, Zool. Misc., vol. i. pi. 11. 



Meliphaga cardinalis, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 316. 

 Cinnyris rubrater, Less. Kittl. Kiipf., t. 8. f. 1. 

 Blood-bird of the Colonists of New South Wales. 



Myzomela sanguinolenta, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv. 

 pi. 63. 



This beautiful little bird is an inhabitant of the thick 

 brushes of New South Wales, particularly those near the 

 coast and those clothing the hilly portions of the interior, and 

 I have reason to believe that it is rarely, if ever, found among 

 the trees of the open parts of the country. I have not yet 

 seen specimens from the western, and only a single example 

 from the northern coasts, whence T infer that the south-eastern 

 part of the continent is its natural habitat. It gives a 

 decided preference to those parts of the forest that abound 

 with flowering plants, whose fragrant blossoms attract large 

 numbers of insects, upon which and the pollen of the flower- 

 cups it chiefly subsists. 



