HONEY-EATERS. 



to taste any other food while honey remained, but never 

 found them do well on it ; besides, I found it impossible 

 to keep the birds clean if kept in cages. The larger 

 Honey-eaters are easily kept, and will partake of any 

 good insectivorous food with addition of fruit and meal- 

 worms." 



Fuscous HONEY-EATER, (Ptilotis fusca). 



Above greyish-brown, slightly washed with olive ; 

 a ring of black feathers round eye ; eyelashes pale 

 yellow ; ear-coverts blackish-brown ; a small patch of 

 yellow behind the ear ; under-surface pale greyish- 

 brown ; bill black at tip, dull yellow at base ; gape 

 and corners of mouth yellow ; feet fleshy-brown ; irides 

 pale yellow. Female similar, but rather smaller. Hab., 

 Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria. 



Gould observes: "In the months of August and 

 September, when the beautiful Tecoma is in blossom, 

 it may be seen flitting about among the thick clusters 

 of the pendent flowers in search of insects, which are 

 sometimes captured while on the wing, but more 

 generally extracted from the tubular florets." " Handb. 

 Birds Austral.," Vol. I., p. 520. 



Mr. Campibell describes the nest as "cup-shaped, 

 neat ; composed of shreds of brownish bark, matted with 

 spiders' web and cocoons ; lined inside with fine shreds 

 of bark, a few rootlets or grass stalks, hair, and some- 

 times tihe silky down from seed-vessels or cotton 

 material, gathered in the neighbourhood of habitations ; 

 usually placed among the branchlets at the end of a 

 horizontal eucalypt bough. Dimensions over all, 2^ 

 inches by 2^ inches in depth ; egg cavity, If inches 

 across by 1^ inches deep. 



" Eggs : Clutch, one to three, "but usually two ; oval 

 or roundish in form ; texture of shell fine ; surface has 

 a, faint trace of gloss ; colour, rich salmon or buff, 

 marked more or less distinctly about the apex with 

 pinkish-red and purplish-brown. Dimensions in inches 

 ,73 x &." " Nests and Eggs of Australian Birds, 

 p. 385. 



Mr. Campbell also quotes Messrs. Barnard as having 

 taken an exceptional clutch of four eggs. 



This species was received at the Berlin Zoological 

 Gardens in 1895. 



GARRULOUS HONEY-EATER (Myzantha garrula). 



Upper surface pale greyish-ibrown ; feathers at back 

 of neck tipped with silvery-grey ; primaries dark brown, 

 with grey edges to outer webs ; secondaries with dark 

 brown inner webs, outer webs yellow at base, grey at 

 tips ; tail-feathers greyish-brown, with darker shafts ; 

 all excepting the two central ones with brownish-white 

 tips ; crown dull black ; face grey ; ear-coverts and a cres- 

 centic streak running upwards to angle of beak jet- 

 black ; naked space 'below eye yellow ; ohin grey at 

 .sides, black in centre ; remainder of under-surface grey, 

 the breast with narrow crescentic subterminal markings 

 to the fethers ; bill and feet yellow ; irides dark hazel. 

 Female similar in plumage, tout rather smaller. Hab., 

 'South Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South 

 Australia, and Tasmania. 



Gould says : " The natural habits of this bird lead 

 it to frequent the thinly-timbered forests of Eucalypti 

 clothing the plains and low hills rather than the dense 

 "brushes. 



" It moves in small companies of from four to ten in 

 number. In disposition it is restless, inquisitive, bold, 

 and noisy, and frequently performs the most grotesque 

 actions, spreading out the wings and tail, hanging from 

 the branches in every possible variety of position, and 

 keeping up all the time an incessant babbling. Were 

 this only momentary or for a short time, their droll 



attitudes and singular note would he rather amusing 

 than otherwise ; but when they follow you through the 

 entire forest, leaping and flying from branch to branch, 

 they become very troublesome and annoying. 



" The nest is cup shaped, and about the size of that 

 of the European Thrush, very neatly built of fine twigs 

 and coarse grass, and lined either with wool and hair, 

 or fine soft hair-like strips of hark, frequently mixed 

 with feathers ; it is usually placed among the small 

 upright branches of a moderately-sized tree. The eggs, 

 which vary considerably, are thirteen lines long by 

 nine and a half lines broad, are of a bluish-white, 

 marked all over with reddish-brown, without any in- 

 dication of the zone at the larger end so frequently 

 observable in the eggs of other species." " Handb. 

 Birds Austral.," Vol. I., p. 575. 



Campbell says of the eggs : " Clutch, three to four, 

 rarely five ; oval or round-oval in form ; texture fine ; 

 surface glossy ; colour, warm white, mottled and 

 spotted all over, more thickly on (the apex, with rich 

 reddish-chestnut and purplish-grey." " Nests and Eggs 

 of Australian Birds," p. 420. 



Of this species .the dealer Beiche of Alfeld received 

 a large consignment in 1893 ; in 1894 Reisz of Berlin 

 acquired one specimen, and Bambaud of Marseilles 

 a pair. In the same year a specimen reached the Lon- 

 don Zoological Gardens. Mr. George Carrick has also 

 imported this species. 



WATTLED HONEY-EATER (Anthochcera carunculata). 



Above greyish-brown ; all the feathers with a white 

 central stripe ; upper tail-coverts with grey margins ; 

 flights blackish-'brov n with grey margins, broader on 

 the .secondaries; tail-feathers white-tipped, the two 

 central ones greyish-'brown, the others blackish-brown ; 

 crown, a line from base of bill running ibelow eye, and 

 ear-coverts blackish-torown ; space below eye silvery 

 white, behind which is an oblong naked flesh-coloured 

 sp&t, under which is a short pinky blood-red wattle ; 

 throat, breast and flanks grey with paler centres to 

 the feathers ; centre of abdomen yellow ; hill black 

 (Ituss) ; feet brownish-flesh-colour ; irides hazel-red. 

 Hab., South Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, 

 South and West Australia. 



Gould publishes the following notes on this species : 

 " I observed it to be very numerous in all the 

 high gum trees around Adelaide, in most parts of the 

 interior, and in all the Angophora flats and forests of 

 Eucalypti of New South Wales. It is a showy active 

 bird, constantly engaged in flying from tree to tree and 

 searching among the flowers for its food, which con- 

 sists of honey, insects and occasionally berries. In dis- 

 position it is generally shy and wary, but at times is 

 confident and bold. It is usually seen in pains, and 

 the males are very pugnacious. Its habits and manners, 

 in fact, closely resemble those of the A. inauris, and, 

 like that toird, it utters with distended throat a harsh 

 disagreeable note. 



" It breeds in September and October. The nests ob- 

 served by myself in the Upper Hunter district were 

 placed on the horizontal branches of the Angophorce, 

 and were of a large rounded form, composed of small 

 sticks, and lined with fine grasses. Those found by 

 Gilbert in Western Australia were formed of dried 

 sticks, without any kind of lining, and were placed in 

 the open bushes. The eggs are two or three in numiber, 

 one inch and three lines long by ten lines and a half 

 broad ; their ground-colour is reddish buff, very thickly 

 dotted with distinct markings of deep chestnut, umber, 

 and reddish brown, interspersed with a number of 

 indistinct marks of blackish grey, which appear as if 

 beneath the surface of the shell; eggs taken in New 



