THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 29 



lateral feathers faintly tipped with slaty wliite, around eye black, 

 with a faint trace of a white ring appearing ; crown of head 

 black ; narrow line running from angle of lower mandible, white ; 

 ear coverts silvery slate, behind which is an irregular line of white ; 

 chin feathers brownish black, edged with dirty white ; primaries 

 and primary coverts' margins yellowish-green ; under surface of 

 wing fulvous ; upper tail coverts rufous, central parts black ; 

 abdomen, flanks, and under tail coverts whitish with centres of 

 feathers narrowly marked with brownish black ; bill, legs, and 

 feet black. Total length, 7 inches; culmen, .65 inch; wing, 3 

 inches ; tail, 3 inches ; tarsus, .8 inch. 



f&.j Young. No sex given. Collected 27/11/98. The whole 

 of dorsal surface light brown, excepting upper tail coverts, which 

 are a richer brown ; under surface chin and throat greyish, upper 

 and lower breast mottled brown, each feather being tipped with 

 light brown ; abdomen, flanks, and under tail coverts nearly as in 

 (a) ; wing coverts edged with fulvous ; under surface of wings 

 slate; bill brown. Total length, 7 inches; culmen, .6 inch; 

 wing, 3.1 inch ; tail, 3 inches ; tarsus, .7 inch. 



In the two specimens received, (b) appears to me to have 

 just left the nest, while (aj, possibly the parent of fbj, is 

 perhaps only a few months older, or more likely one year old. 

 If it had a white forehead, and was devoid of definite rufous 

 on its upper tail coverts it would be closely related to if 

 not G. albifrons. Our fellow member, Mr. G. A. Keartland, 

 secured a specimen of (a) while nesting in a stunted 

 tree between the Johanna Springs and Jilgelly Creek in the 

 North-West, but observed only one sex. This skin was lost 

 with hundreds of others. Mr. Cameron writes : — " I think the 

 two honey-eaters are male and female of the same species. I 

 saw numerous pairs of them, and always the same. This pair 

 certainly behaved like mates, and when I fired at another bird, 

 they flew and alighted together on a bush 150 yards away. I 

 then approached and shot them. The dark one was a male; 

 the grey one I consider a female, but cannot definitely say. I 

 have seen none of them since (30/11/98), and most likely will 

 not get more till next spring." 



In classifying G. albifrons, Mr. Gould says nothing about 

 rufous on the upper tail coverts ; but Dr. Gadow, in vol. ix. 

 "British Museum Catalogue of Birds" refers to a rufous brown. 

 In stage b (the younger) the upper tail coverts are not nearly so 

 defined in rufous as in stage a (the elder) apparently. No stages 

 to the adult of G. albifrons seem to have been ytt described, 

 and if the above (a) and (b) do not prove eventually to form an 

 additional species the descriptions will serve as those of con- 

 necting links. In this genus the known young are much 

 opposed in plumage to that of the parents. 



