BY E. P. RAMSAY, ESQ. 321 



became more perfectly understood, and ornithologists began to 

 classify their birds more from their habits, &c., this species 

 was finally placed among the Honey-eaters, and a new genus 

 formed for its reception, viz : that of Xanthomyza, of which, 

 at present, it is the only species known. The curious 

 miniature wart-like excrescences round the eyes and ears, have 

 gained it the colonial name of the Wart-faced Honey -eater, 

 while from its black and yellow plumage, it is called also the 

 Mock Regent-bird. 



PTILOTIS FUSCA. 



The Fuscous Honey -eater. (Gould, B. Austr., Vol. IV., pi. 44. 

 PL L, Fig. 4. 



Of the genus Ptilotis, there are at present 16 species known, 

 being the most numerous group of the Australian Meliphagidce. 

 " Nearly all the species (says Mr. Gould) are prettily marked about 

 the face, or have the ear-coverts largely developed, and character- 

 ized by a coloring different from that of the other part of the 

 plumage." 



Although the members of this genus are among the most 

 brilliantly coloured of the tribe, this species has nothing in its 

 plumage to recommend it, which may account for its being some- 

 what overlooked. I find little or no mention of its habits or 

 economy, and nothing of its nidification, even in Mr. Gould's 

 magnificent work ; although it is one of the most common species 

 of our Sydney birds. 



The fuscous Honey-eater breeds in September and the three 

 following months, making a neat cup-shaped nest of stringy-bark, 

 strengthened by the addition of a great quantity of cobweb ; it is 

 lined with fine shreds of bark, hair, and sometimes the silky 

 down from the seed-vessels of the wild cotton, (Gomphocarpus 

 fruticosus.) It is usually placed among the twigs at the end of 

 some horizontal bough, or among the bushy tops of the young 

 Eucalypti. The Turpentine trees, (Syncarpia) also afford favorite 

 sites for their nests, which are 2 J inches across by 2 inches deep. 

 The eggs are two in number, from 8| to 10 lines long, by 



