HOXEY-EATERS. 



65 



cough, a laugh, and a sneeze,' and a variety of other 

 notes entitling it to be ranked as a songster. 



"Its flight is rapid, graceful, and slightly undulating, 

 the rustling of the wings as they are alternately opened 

 and closed being distinctly audible. 



" The food of the Tui consists of ripe berries of 

 various kinds, flies and other insects, and the honey of 

 certain wild flowers. 



" The nest of this species is usually placed in the 

 fork of a bushy shrub, only a few feet from the ground, 

 but I have also found it at a considerable elevation, 

 hidden among the leafy top of a forest tree. It is rather 

 a large structure, composed chiefly of sprays or dry 

 twigs, intermixed with coarse green moss, the cavity 

 being lined with fibrous grasses, very carefully bent and 

 adjusted. Sometimes the interior is composed of the 

 black hair-like substance from the young shoots of the 

 tree-fern, the cavity being lined with dry bents." 



" The eggs are generally three or four in number, and 

 present some variety in form, and colour. They are 

 white, with a faint rosy blush, stained, mottled and 

 freckled with reddish-brown ; or more or less speckled 

 only at the larger end ; sometimes almost pure white." 

 (Cf. Buller's "Birds of New Zealand.") 



The Zoological Society's List records nineteen 

 examples of this species as having been exhibited in the 

 Gardens at Regent's Park, and at one time the Poe-bird 

 or Tui used to 'be a familiar object at bird shows, but 

 of late years I have not seen a specimen. 



There is much difference of opinion as to the most 

 suitable food for captive Parson-birds, the following 

 having been recommended toy various aviculturists who 

 have kept it : Boiled potato mashed up with moist 

 sugar ; potato mashed up with condensed milk ; 

 crushed ibiscuit mixed with condensed milk ; stale 

 breadcrumbs two parts, Abrahams' food one part, 

 moistened with grated carrot and mixed with 

 a little preserved yolk of egg; Carl Capelle's 

 food, and ants' cocoons. I should feed them 

 precisely as I do Tanagers, on my regular soft-food 

 mixture, orange, banana, and a few mealworms, and I 

 am quite sure they would do -well. 



A very interesting paper on the Australian Honey- 

 eaters from the pen of Mr. A. J. Campbell appeared 

 in The Avicultural Magazine, N.S., Vol. I., pp. 347-353, 

 with notes on various species kept in captivity in their 

 native land. 



LTTNTTLATED on WHITE-NAPED HONEY-EATER 

 (Melithreptus lunulatus). 



Above greenish olive ; head and chin black ; a white 

 crescentic marking on the occiput ; a scarlet naked space 

 above eye ; wings and tail brown ; outer webs of 

 primaries with their apical half edged with grey ; basal 

 half, outer webs of secondaries and tail feathers washed 

 with greenish olive ; below white ; bill blackish brown ; 

 feet olive ; irides dark brown. Female similar, but 

 smaller. Hab., Wide Bay, Richmond and Clarence 

 Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Victoria, and South 

 Australia. 



"It inhabits almost every variety of situation, but 

 gives a decided preference to the Eucalypti and Anqo- 

 phorce trees, among the smaller branches of which it 

 may be constantly seen actively engaged in searching 

 for insects, which, with the pollen and honey of the 

 flower-cups, constitute its food. It is a stationary 

 species, and breeds during the months of August and 

 September; its beautiful, round, cup-shaped, open nest 

 is composed of the inner rind of the stringy bark or 

 other allied gum-trees, intermingled with wool and hair, 

 warmly lined with opossum's fur, and is suspended by 

 the rim to the small leafy twigs of the topmost branches 



of the Eucalypti. The eggs are two or three in number, 

 of a pale buff, dotted all over, but particularly at the 

 larger end, with distinct markings of rich reddish brown 

 and chestnut-red, among which are a few clouded mark- 

 ings of bluish grey ; their medium length is nine lines, 

 and breadth six and a half lines. 



" Like the young of M . chloropsis, the young birds of 

 this species breed some time before they have attained 

 their green livery ; at all events, I have found examples 

 breeding in a state of plumage, which I believe to be 

 characteristic of youth." Gould, " Handb. Birds 

 Austral.." I., pp. 568-9. 



A. J. North, "Catalogue of Nests and Eggs," etc., 

 p. 227, observes: "Amongst a number of nests pre- 

 sented by Dr. Ramsay to the Trustees of the Australian 

 Museum is one of this species, taken in October, 1864 ; 

 it is a deep, cup-s'haped structure, outwardly comiposed 

 of shreds of stringy bark (Eucalyptus obliqua), closely 

 matted and held together with cobweb, wool, etc., and 

 lined inside with hair ; it is slung by the rim to the 

 leafy twigs of a eucalyptus, exterior measurements 2^in. 

 in diameter, by 2in. in depth. Eggs two or three in 

 number for a sitting, of a yellowish buff ground-colour, 

 with spots of a deeper and more reddish hue, some 

 specimens being uniformly spotted all over, but more 

 often assuming the form of a zone." 



"This bird usually breeds during August and the 

 three following months in Victoria, but there are eggs 

 of this species in the Dobroyde Collection taken at 

 Dobroyde, New South Wales, in June, 1859, and July, 

 1861. 



In The Avicultural Magazine, 1st Series, Vol. VI., 

 pp. 99-100, the Rev. C. D. Farrar published an account 

 of some birds brought home by a friend of his as M. 

 lunulatus. His description of them does not correspond 

 with any Honey-eater recorded by Gould, and that it 

 does not agree at all with the description of the Lunu- 

 lated Honey-eater may be seen by a comparison of the 

 following two accounts : 



FARRAR. 



Head olive-green. 



Wings olive-green. 



Breast soft mouse-colour. 



Underwing-butts a patch of 

 saffron. 



A crescent of saffron on 

 cheek. 



Bill yellow, tipped with horn. 



Feet lead-colour. 

 Possibly the birds may not even have been Honey- 

 eaters, but Mr. Farrar says they refused all other food 

 after honey had beerr procured for them. Then the 

 question arises as to whether M. lunulatus ever has been 

 imported yet. Ruas does not record it. 



STRONG-BILLED HONEY-EATER (Melithreptus 

 valid irostris). 



Upper surface greyish olive, brighter on rump and 

 outer edges of tail feathers ; crown black, with an 

 occipital band of white terminating at each eye; bare 

 skin over eye greenish-white ; back of neck black ; wings 

 brown, tinted with olive ; ear-coverts and chin black ; 

 throat white ; under parts otherwise brownish-grey ; bill 

 black ; feet brownish horn-colour ; irides reddish-brown. 

 The female is probably smaller, though said not to be. 

 The young have the bill and feet yellow, the latter paler 

 than the former ; a circle of the same colour round eye 

 and the band at the occiput yellow. Hab., Tasmania, 

 King-Island, and probably Furneaux group. 



Mr. Gould says that this species is so universally dis- 

 tributed over Tasmania " that scarcely any part is with- 



E 



GOULD. 

 Head black. 

 Wings brown. 

 Breast white. 



A white crescent on 



occiput. 



Bill blackish-brown. 

 Feet olive. 



