THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 105 



The above description is taken from a spirit specimen received 

 by the Curator of the Australian Museum, Sydney, from C. M. 

 Woodford, Esq., Government Resident at the Solomon Islands. 

 It was accompanied with a communication from Mr. Woodford, 

 from which the following information has been extracted : — " I 

 have been able to pay a flying visit to that very little known 

 island, Rennell. . . . It is somewhat rare nowadays to 

 meet with people still in the hoop-iron age and anxious for nails, 

 yet such was the case at Rennell. I am sending you . . 

 a small bird in spirits I obtained there. It may be new, or at 

 least an island variety." 



So far as I can discover, it is apparently an entirely new bird. 

 I cannot find any reference to it in the various works consulted, 

 containing the labours of Drs. E. P. Ramsay, P. L. Sclater, R. 

 B. Sharpe, and E. Hartert, Count Salvadori, Canon Tristram, 

 Mr. W. R. Ogilvie-Grant, and the Hon. Walter Rothschild, and 

 other well-known writers on the ornithology of the Solomon 

 Islands. Owing to its large bill, short tail, thick tarsus, and stout 

 and fleshy feet, I was doubtful even of the family to which this 

 bird belonged until I had examined its tongue, which is deeply 

 grooved down the centre, bifid, and brush-like at the tip. One, 

 however, of its chief characteristics is the bare ring round, and 

 the wrinkled skin in front of the eye, showing an affinity to the 

 genera Melidectes and Melipotes, but both of these have the skin 

 on the sides of the face smooth, and the bare space larger 

 behind than in the front of the eye. In the total absence of the 

 first primary, Woodfordia resembles the genus Zosterops. 



I have much pleasure in generically associating with the 

 present species the name of its discoverer, and one who has for 

 many years past, by his well-known work,* and collecting of 

 specimens, contributed so largely towards a knowledge of the 

 fauna of the Solomon Islands. Vernacularly the present species 

 may be distinguished as Woodford's Honey-eater. 



The figure of Woodfordia superciliosa on the accompanying 

 plate is reproduced from a photograph of the skin, and is of the 

 natural size. 



Mr. Oswald B. Lower, F.E.S., author of the " Catalogue of 

 Victorian Moths," in vols, x.-xiv. of the Victorian Naturalist, is, 

 in conjunction with Mr. E. Meyrick, F.L.S., of Marlborough 

 College, England, engaged on a work on the Australian Psychid^e 

 (Case Moths). He is also assisting Sir G. Hampson in his great 

 work for the British Museum on the Lepidoptera of the world, 

 by forwarding Australian types for description and figuring. 



* "A Naturalist Among the Head-Huiiters." 



