Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



** Birds of 2, feather." 



Vol. XV.] IST OCTOBER, 191 5. [Part 2. 



A New Honey'eatcr : Macgillivrayornts claudi. 



l^v (I)K.) W. Ma((,ii I iVKAV. R.A.O.U., P,K()Ki:.\ Hii.i (X.S.W.) 



Macgillivrayornis claudi. 



A small PassLM'iiu' bird of the Honey-eaU'r laniily. So far it 

 is known to inhabit only the tropical scrubs bordering the Claudie 

 River, which empties itself into Lloyd's Bay, on the eastern side 

 of the Cape York Peninsula. This bird was first described by 

 Mr. (i. M. Mathews in the South Australian Ornithologist, April, 

 i()i4, from a specimen obtained by Mr. W. M'Lennan and myself 

 on the loth November, 1913. 



The generic characters are : — Bill ecjual to the head in length. 

 First primary half the length of the second, which is two-thirds 

 the length of the third : fourth, fifth, and sixth primaries are equal 

 and longest. 



Specific cliaracters : — General colour above, including the wing 

 coverts, greenish : primaries brown, edged with green ; tail 

 blackish-brown ; throat grey ; remainder of the under surface 

 yellow ; under wing coverts hghter yellow ; narrow ring of feathers 

 round the eye white. 



Measurements, taken in the fiesh, of type specimen : — Length, 

 116 mm. ; wing, 55 mm. : culmen, 14 mm. : tarsus. 18 mm. ; middle 

 toe and claw, 12 mm. 



The sexes are alike in colouring. 



Only found in the dense scrub ; usually seen threading its way 

 among the leaves and twigs high up under the canopy of tropical 

 vegetation, where its small size and protective colouring render it 

 a very inconspicuous object. The honour of discovering this bird 

 belongs to Mr. M'Lennan, whose ear, keenly attuned to every bird- 

 note in the scrub, detected an unfamihar one from among the 

 medley of bird-calls and other noises on the day after my arrival 

 at his camp on the Claudie. We had been down the river in the 

 dingey to bring up a load of our baggage, left on the previous day, 

 and landed at a patch of scrub, in order to re])lenish our larder 

 with a fe\y Torres Strait Pigeons. After threading our way 

 through the scrub, finding a nest and eggs of the Rifle-Bird, Mr. 

 M'Lennan heard and detected this species, and soon had two 

 specimens in his hands. 



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