30 THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD [Vol. III. 



black ; but upon comparing specimens of brevirostris and 

 lunatus (for such is the name Shaw used) it was seen that 

 the coloration of the figure agreed very well indeed with that 

 of brevirostris, whereas it disagreed in many particulars with 

 lunatus, which moreover was thrice well-figured in the same 

 set of drawings, Nos. 129, 130, and 131 (c/. Hist. Coll. Brit. 

 Mus., II., p. 132). 



This account was quoted in full in the Emu, Vol. XL, 

 p. 130-1, 1911, in connection with these comments: "And, 

 further, still more puzzling are some of Watling's old drawings 

 with which the late Dr. Sharpe sought to establish the priority 

 in nomenclature of certain Australian birds. Now Mr. Mathews 

 states there is room for doubting the identification of the 

 names given by Sharpe to several of the drawings. Well may 

 Australians ask : ' Why rely on the doubtful drawings of a 

 botanist as against the life-like coloured figures of so great 

 an ornithologist and author as Gould ? ' Bed-rock priority 

 run riot, people are apt to say. . . . Australians have 

 learned to know this familiar Honey-eater as the ' Brown- 

 headed.' To call it atricapillus (Black-headed), even if it 

 were correct in accordance with strict priority, would be 

 misleading and not according to nature." 



It is quaint that the above should be written in conjunction 

 with a bird that Gould did not figure and which he only 

 doubtfully recognised in the Handbook, although Caley wrote 

 of it as " common," and in the above extract it is called 

 " familiar." The first published figure appeared in 1904 in 

 the Emu, Vol. III., pi. XVI., when was written: "It is 

 somewhat remarkable that the former, described by Vigors and 

 Horsfield, and so long known, should only now be figured." 



I now reproduce the original painting made by Watling 

 and from which Latham drew up his description, and it must 

 be immediately conceded that it is " no doubtful drawing," 

 but considering the lapse of time and improvement in methods 

 will bear favourable comparison with the painting made by 

 Gronvold and reproduced in the Emu. 



