566 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



dissection alone can they be distinguished ; the young, on the 

 contrary, during the first autumn differ considerably. 



Crown of the head jet-black, with an occipital band of 

 white terminating at each eye ; ear-coverts, chin, and back of 

 the neck black ; all the upper surface greyish olive, becoming 

 brighter on the rump and external edges of the tail-feathers ; 

 wings brown, with a slight tinge of olive ; throat pure white ; 

 under surface brownish grey ; bill black ; feet brownish horn- 

 colour ; eyes reddish brown ; bare skin over the eye white, 

 tinged with bright green. 



Total length 6f inches ; bill | ; wing 3^ ; tail 3 ; tarsi f . 



The young have the bill and feet yellow, but the latter paler 

 than the former, and a circle of the same colour round 

 the eye ; the band at the occiput is also pale yellow instead 

 of white. 



Sp. 348. MELITHREPTUS GULARIS, Gould. 



Black-throated Honet-eater. 

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



Melithreptus gularis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv. pi. 71. 



This species is very abundant in all parts of South Australia. 

 It frequents the large Eucalypti, and during my stay in 

 Adelaide I frequently saw it on some of the high trees that 

 had been allowed to remain by the sides of the streets in the 

 middle of the city. From this locality it extends its range 

 eastward to Victoria and New South Wales. I killed several 

 specimens in the Upper Hunter district, and observed it to 

 be tolerably numerous on the plains in the neighbom-hood of 

 the river Namoi ; and that it breeds in these countries is 

 proved by my having shot the young in different stages of 

 growth in all of them. It is a very noisy bird, constantly 

 uttering a loud harsh grating call while perched on the top- 

 most dead or bare branch of a high tree ; the call being as 



