570 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



In comparing it with . another species, M. gidaris, I find 

 that the latter has cinnamon-brown wings, brown axillaries, 

 and a vinous-brown under surface ; consequently the bird is 

 as nearly allied to M. gidaris as to M. lunidatiis, except in 

 size. I must therefore leave this matter to the investigation 

 of residents in New South Wales or South Austraha, from 

 which latter country one of the specimens was sent. 



Total length 4| inches ; bill f ; wing 2| ; tail 2f ; tarsi |. 



Should it ultimately prove to be distinct, then it must bear 

 the inappropriate name of Melithreptus brevirostris, as I find 

 it is strictly identical with the type-specimen of the bird so 

 called by Vigors and Horsfield, formerly in the collection of 

 the Linnean Society, and now in the British Museum. 



Sp. 350. MELITHREPTUS CHLOROPSIS, Gould. 



Swan River Honey-eater. 



Melithreptus chloropsis, Gould iu Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xv. p. 220. 

 Ji'/i-gee, Aborigines of the lowland, and 

 Bun-geen, of the mountain districts of Western Australia. 

 Ber-ril-ber-ril, Aborigines of Swan River. 



Melithreptus chloropsis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iv. 

 pi. 73. 



This species differs from the Melithreptus lunulatus in being 

 of a larger size, and in having the bare space above the eye of a 

 pale green instead of red ; in other respects the two birds so 

 closely assimilate, that they are scarcely distinguishable from 

 each other. Individuals in a browner and more dull style of 

 plumage, presenting in fact all the appearances of young 

 birds of the first year, have occasionally been found breeding, 

 a circumstance which has induced many persons to believe 

 them to be distinct ; as, however, if I mistake not, I found in 

 New South Wales individuals breeding in a similar style of 

 plumage in company with adults of M. lunulatus, I am induced 

 to regard these dull-coloured birds as merely precocious 



