■30 Gilbert, The Black-throated Honey-eater. \ 



Ell 



July 



R.A.O.U. " Check-list." — Australia generally. 

 G. M. Mathews's " Hand-list," 1913.^ 



Melithrcptits giilaris giilaris — New South Wales, Victoria. 

 loftyi — South Australia. 

 ingrami — Mid-Queensland. 

 ,, ,, carpentarianits — North Queensland. 



,, ,, Icetior — Northern Territory. 



,, ,, coongani — Mid. and North-West Aus- 



tralia. 



It will be seen that G. M. Mathews incorporates M. gularis and 

 M. Icetior to make up six sub-species, \vhile other authorities treat 

 them as two distinct species. From an analysis of the above 

 summary of distribution, and from information conveyed by 

 different authorities, M . gularis would appear to be of very rare 

 occurrence north of the Tropic of Capricorn, past which hue one 

 would expect to find that its closest affinity, M . Icrtior, takes up 

 the running. 



Relative to its disposition along the coastal and in the central 

 areas of New South Wales, its dispersal is in moderate numbers 

 only, even where congenial surroundings obtain, and, so far as 

 my experience goes, I have nowhere found it plentiful. During 

 igi6 I noted five pairs over a wide expanse of bush at Blacktown, 

 N.S.W., but prior to then and since that year odd pairs were met 

 with. 



The Black-throated Honey-eater (A/, gularis) is mostly met 

 with in open forest country comprised of smooth-barked gums, 

 stringybarks, ironbarks, and tea-trees, interspersed with clumps 

 of box-trees and saplings. It is in one of these box-tree clumps 

 that they generally select a position to nest. Such habitats are 

 met with over a great deal of the forest country of New South 

 Wales. 



The food of the Black-throated Honey-eater covers a wide 

 range in nectar and in insects. The former is sipped up from 

 any blossom at hand, while the latter are chiefly comprised of 

 saw-fly lar\-<e {Tenthredinidce) and Paropsis grubs {Chrysomelidce), 

 which" abound on the box saplings. Moths and small beetles are 

 nipped up from the blossom, or whilst they are on the wing they 

 swoop down on or dart at any insect that comes their way, 

 securing it with the greatest precision. These tactics arc most 

 noticeable when they are feeding fully-fledged young. It may 

 here be said that the eating of insects by this Honey-eater is of 

 infinite advantage economically to man, for every now and then 

 some insect forsakes the forest and the scrub to take up habitation 

 on the farm or field. 



The nest is a beautiful, compact, cup-shaped structure, com- 

 posed of fibrous bark securely woven together, with a profusion 

 of hair, wool, or fur thickly interwoven and matted, giving it the 

 appearance as of loose felt. It is so deftly worked in and out 

 that the outer part of the cup is conspicuously hairy, while the 

 inner cup or receptacle receives, in adcUtion, a cushion of wool 



