28 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. III. 



in the original description a note was added : "This bird is 

 said to be common by Mr. Caley, and to be called Cung'leer 

 by the natives." 



When the Catalogue of Birds of the British Museum was 

 written, the part dealing with Australian Honey Eaters was 

 entrusted to Gadow, a worker with no interest whatever in 

 the group and one who failed to realise the high standard 

 set by his predecessors in the undertaking. Consequently 

 the relations of the species lunvlatus, melanocephalus and 

 brevirostris to Latham's Certhia atricapilla were not investigated 

 and the latter name not even mentioned in synonymy. 



However, being an authoritative publication, Gadow's 

 work was accepted by many ornithologists unable to criticise 

 his incomplete compilation. That my strictures are mild will 

 be seen by those who care to refer to the volumes of the Ibis 

 immediately following the publication of the Catalogue, 

 where Salvadori, Tristram and others plainly exposed Gadow's 

 ignorance of the subject he pretended to treat. 



In 1906 the matter was independently revived by two 

 writers — one, North of Australia, the other Sharpe of Great 

 Britain. The former, writing in the Ibis, urged the acceptance 

 of Certhia atricapilla Latham as anterior and equivalent to 

 lunulatus Shaw, though admitting the description seemed 

 imperfect. 



In the Hist. Coll. Nat. Hist. Brit., Vol. II., p. 128, 

 1906, Sharpe, dealing with the Watling Drawings, wrote the 

 following : 



" No. 105. Black-headed Creeper, Lath., Gen, Syn., 

 Suppl. II., p. 167. 



Certhia atricapilla Lath., Ind. Orn., Suppl., p. xxxvn. 



This figure is intended for the bird usually called Melithreptus 

 lanulatus (Shaw) ; cj. Gadow, Cat. B., IX., p. 204. Shaw's 

 name is adopted by Dr. Gadow, but I cannot reconcile the 

 description given by Shaw (Gen. Zool., VIII. , p. 224, 1811) — 

 with the ' back, wings, and tail cinnamon-brown ' — with 

 any species of Melithreptus. The name ought to have been 

 dropped on this account, but it matters no longer, as 



