n HOBART AND THE MIDLANDS 63 



seen the common Tasmanian Yellow-throated 

 Honey-eater (Ptilotis flavigula) searching the bark 

 of the Gum-trees for spiders and beetles, and 

 hawking for flies on the wing exactly after the 

 manner of a true Flycatcher. The Yellow-throated 

 Honey-eater of Tasmania is one of the commonest 

 birds in the forests on Mount Wellington, and its 

 rather mellow little song is not to be despised in 

 a country where the birds are notoriously unmusi- 

 cal. It is rather a large bird, about the size of a 

 thrush, but more slender in build and with a long 

 tail ; the colour is olivaceous green, and there is a 

 patch of saffron under the chin. Two much 

 smaller Honey-eaters with rather long curved bills, 

 almost as common as the above, are the Black- 

 headed (Meliphaga novae-hollandiae) and the Tas- 

 manian Honey-eater (M. Australasiana), the latter 

 confined to Tasmania and distinguished by its 

 black collar. Both have black and white plum- 

 age with yellow on the wings ; the Tasmanian 

 Honey-eater is very common quite on the top of 

 Mount Wellington, and I have often watched them 

 there gathering the Honey from the Waratah. 

 Another peculiar Honey-eater, characterized by 

 its exceedingly long curved bill and its chocolate 

 breast, is the Spine Bill (Acanthorhynchus), This 

 bird occurs on Mount Wellington, but is much 

 commoner in the open lowland country. 



Next to the Honey-eaters, the true Flycatchers 

 or Muscicapidae are the best represented of the 

 small Passerines in Australia and Tasmania, and 



