INSESSORES. 565 



Sp. 347. MELITHREPTUS VALIDIROSTRIS, Gould. 



Strong-billed Honet-eater. 



Hcematops validirostris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part iv. p. 144. 

 Eidopsaris bicinctus, Swains. An. in Menag., p. 344. 

 Sturnus virescens, Wagl. Syst. Av. Sturnus, sp. 5 ? 

 Melithreptus virescens, Gray Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p, 12.8. 

 Cherry -picker, Colonists of Tasmania. 



Melithreptus validirostris, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv. 

 pi. 70. 



This bird, the largest species of the genus yet discovered, 

 is a native of Tasmania, and so universally is it distributed 

 over that island that scarcely any part is without its presence. 

 The crowns of the highest mountains as well as the lowlands, 

 if clothed with Eucalypti, are equally enlivened by it. Like 

 all the other members of the genus, it frequents the small 

 leafy and flowering branches ; it differs, however, from its 

 congeners in one remarkable character, that of alighting upon 

 and clinging to the surface of the boles of the trees in search 

 of insects. I never saw it run up and down the trunk, but 

 merely fly to such parts as instinct led it to select as the pro- 

 bable abode of insects. 



I am indebted to the Rev. Thomas J. Ewing, D.D., for 

 the nest and eggs of this bird, which I failed in procuring 

 during my stay in Tasmania. Like those of the other mem- 

 bers of the genus the nest is round and cup-shaped, suspended 

 by the rim and formed of coarse wiry grasses, with a few 

 blossoms of grasses for a hning ; the eggs are three in num- 

 ber, eleven lines long by eight lines broad, and of a dull olive- 

 buff, thickly spotted and blotched with markings of purplish 

 brown and bluish grey, the latter a})pcaring as if beneath the 

 surface of the shell. 



The song consists of a couple of notes, and is not remark- 

 able for its melody. 



The sexes assimilate so closely in size and plumage, that by 



