490 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



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 Avith a large oval 

 spot of white on the inner web at .the tip ; surface white, 

 broadly striped with black, the black predominating on the 

 breast and the white on the abdomen ; irides white ; bill and 

 feet black. 



Total length 7 inches ; bill 1 ; wing f ; tail 3 J ; tarsi f . 



Sp. 298. MELIORNIS SERICEA, Gould. 



White-cheeked Honey-eater. 



New Holland Creeper, female, Whitens Voy., pi. in p. 297 ? 

 U Heorotaire noir, Vieill. Ois. Dor., torn. ii. p. 106, pi. 71. 

 Meliphaga sericea, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part iv. p. 144. 



sei-iceola, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part v. p. 152, female. 



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



Meliphaga sericea, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iv. pi. 25. 



The White-cheeked Honey-eater is an inhabitant of New 

 South Wales, and certainly proceeds as far to the eastward as 

 Moreton Bay; but the birds inhabiting the country to the 

 northward of this being comparatively unknown, it is impossible 

 to say how far its range may extend in that direction. It 

 has not been discovered in Tasmania or South Australia. 

 It differs materially in its habits and diposition from the 

 Melijphaga 7iov(B-JiollandicE, being less exclusively confined to 

 the brushes, and affecting localities of a more open character. 

 I observed it to be tolerably abundant in the Illawarra district, 

 particularly among the shrubs surrounding the open glades 

 of the forest ; it is also common at Botany Bay, and on most 

 parts of the sea-coast between that place and the river Cla- 

 rence ; but I never met with it during any of my excursions 

 into the interior of the country. 



Unlike its near ally, it is a remarkably shy species ; so much 



