556 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



1 



The sexes are very dissimilar in colour, the female being of 

 a uniform pale brown above and lighter beneath, while the 

 male is dressed in a gorgeous livery of scarlet and black ; the 

 young, as is usually the case where the sexes differ in colour, 

 resemble the female until after the first moult, when they 

 gradually assume the colouring of the male. 



Tlie male has the head, neck, breast, back, and upper tail- 

 coverts rich shining scarlet ; lores, wings, and tail black, the 

 wing-coverts margined with buffy white, and the primaries 

 with greyish olive ; under surface of the wing white ; abdo- 

 men and under tail-coverts buff ; bill and feet black ; irides 

 dark brown. 



The female is uniform light brown above, becoming much 

 lighter beneath. 



Sp. 342. MYZOMELA ERYTHROCEPHALA, Godd. 



Red-headed Honey-eater. 

 Myzumela erythrocephala, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part vii. p. 141. 



Myzomela erythrocephala, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iv. 

 pi. 64. 



The Red-headed Honey-eater is so distinctly marked as 

 almost to preclude the possibility of its being confounded 

 with any known Australian species of the genus. 



The northern portion of the country appears to be its true 

 habitat, all the specimens that have come under my notice 

 having been procured at Port Essington, where it is exclu- 

 sively confined to the extensive beds of mangroves bordering 

 the inlets of the sea. Erom the flowers of these trees it 

 collects its favourite food, which, like that of the other species 

 of the group, consists of insects and honey. It is a most 

 active little creature, flitting from one cluster of flowers to 

 another, and from branch to branch with the greatest rapidity, 

 uttering at the same time its rather sharp and harsh chirrup. 

 Gilbert states that it is far from being abundant, and is so 



