488 BlllDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



not unfrequently assume the form of a zone ; their medium 

 length is nine Unes and a half, and breadth nearly seven lines. 

 The sexes are alike in colour, and may be thus described : — 

 Crown of the head and cheeks black, with minute white 

 feathers on the forehead round the base of the upper mandible ; 

 a superciliary stripe, a moustache at the base of the upper 

 mandible, and a small tuft of feathers immediately behind the 

 ear-coverts white ; feathers on the throat white and bristle- 

 like ; upper surface brownish black, becoming browner on 

 the rump ; wings brownish black, the outer edges of the 

 quills margined at the base with beautiful wax-yellow, and 

 faintly margined with white towards the extremities ; tail 

 brownish black, margined externally at the base with wax- 

 yellow, and all but the two centre feathers with a large oval 

 spot of white on the inner web at the tip ; under surface 

 white, broadly striped longitudinally with black, the black 

 predominating on the breast and the white on the abdomen ; 

 irides white ; bill and feet black. 



Sp. 297. MELIORNIS LONGIROSTRIS, Gould. 



Long-billed Honey-eater. 



Meliphaga longirostris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xiv. p. 83. 

 Meliornis longirostris, Cab. Mus. Hein,, Theil i. p. 117. 

 Ban-dene, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia. 

 Yellow-winged Honey-eater of the Colonists of Swan River. 



Meliphaga longirostris, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv. 

 pi. 24. 



Although the Meliornis longirostris and M. novcd-hollandixB 

 are very similar, they will on comparison prove to be specifi- 

 cally distinct ; they are, in fact, beautiful representatives of 

 each other on the opposite sides of the great Australian con- 

 tinent, the M. longirostris inhabiting the western, and the M. 

 nov(E-hollandi(B being spread over the eastern portion of the 

 country, and it would be a matter of some interest to know 



