500 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Genus STIGMATOPS, Gould. 



Of this form, I believe two, if not three species inhabit 

 Austraha, and as many more the islands to the northward. 



Sp. 304. STIGMATOPS OCULARIS, Gould. 

 Brown Honey-eater. 



Glyciphila ? ocularis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part v. p. 154. 

 Lichmera ocularis, Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 118. 

 Jin-jo-gour, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia. 

 Brown Honeij-sucker of the Colonists. 



I 



Glyciphila ocularis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv. pi. 31. 



I met with the Brown Honey-eater in abundance on Baker's 

 Island at the mouth of the Hunter, and on the banks of the 

 Namoi in the , interior of New South Wales ; and Gilbert 

 records that he found it equally numerous at Swan River. 



In its actions and manners it displays the usual activity of 

 the Honey- eaters generally, creeping and clinging among the 

 branches with the greatest ease, and particularly affecting 

 those most laden with blossoms, into which it inserts its brush- 

 like tongue to procure the sweet pollen : like other species of 

 the group, it also feeds with avidity upon all kinds of small 

 insects. 



Its powers of song are considerable : the most frequently 

 repeated note being remarkably shrill, rich, clear, and distinct 

 in tone. While the female is sitting upon her eggs, the 

 male sings all day long with scarcely any intermission. 



The situations chosen for the site of the nest are various ; 

 the most favourite position appears to be the side of a tea- 

 tree, the bark of which is hanging down in tatters ; it is 

 also sometimes suspended from the drooping branches of the 

 stinkwood ; and in one instance Gilbert found it attached to 

 two slender fibrous roots, hanging from beneath a bank over a 

 pool of water. The nest is generally formed of soft strips of 



