INSESSORES. 491 



SO, that I had much difficulty in getting within gun-shot of it. 

 When perched on the trees it is a most showy bird, its white 

 check-feathers and contrasted tints of colouring rendering it 

 very conspicuous, 



I did not succeed in finding its nest. 



The sexes are alike in colour, but the female is somewhat 

 smaller than the male. The white cheeks and the absence of 

 white tips to the tail-feathers will at all times distinguish it 

 from the M. nov(B-hollandi(E. 



Crown of the head, throat, and space round the eye black ; 

 an obscure band of white crosses the forehead and passes over 

 each eye ; a beautiful plume of hair-like white feathers spreads 

 over the cheeks and ear-coverts ; back dusky brown, striped 

 longitudinally with black ; under surface white, each feather 

 having a central longitudinal mark of black ; wings dark 

 browm, the outer edge of all the primaries and secondaries 

 wax -yellow; tail dark brown, the external edges margined 

 with yellow ; irides dark brown ; feet and bill black. 



Total length 6 J inches ; bill f ; wing 2 J ; tail 2f ; tarsi f . 



Sp. 299. MELIORNIS MYSTACALIS, Gould, 



MOUSTACHED HoNEY-EATER. 



Meliphaga mystacalis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part viii. p. 161. 

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

 Ban-dene, Aborigines of Swan River. 



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

 pi. 26. 



At the time I described this new species of Meliornis in 

 the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' I was not aware 

 that Temminck had applied the term mystacalis to another 

 species of Honey-eater, or I should have selected a different 

 appellation ; as, however, Temminck's bird belongs to a 

 distinct section of this great family, any alteration would 

 rather tend to produce confusion than otherwise. 



