HONEY-EATER. 161 



5— MELLIVOROUS HONEY-EATER. 



Certhia Mellivora, Ind. Orn. Sup. xxxvii. 

 Le Go-ruch, Ois. Dor. ii. 126. pi. 88. 

 Goruck Creeper, Shaw's Zool. viii. 2-43. 

 Mellivorous Creeper, Gen. Syn. Sup. ii. 166. 



SIZE of a Thrush. Bill moderately curved, and black; tongue 

 bristly at the tip ; general colour of the plumage black, marked on 

 most of the feathers with slender white crescents, and short streaks of 

 the same ; this arises from the shafts of the feathers being white, and 

 the ends fringed with it, giving them a crescent-like appearance ; 

 the axillary coverts have pale edges, and the margins of some of the 

 quills the same ; some of the greater wing coverts longitudinally 

 marked with rufous ; on the rump a few markings of white ; end of 

 the tail very pale, nearly white. 



Inhabits New South Wales, and is also called Goo-gwar-ruck ; 

 is a numerous species, seldom seen but near the sea shore, where the 

 natives especially resort ; it is a lively bird, constantly in action in 

 sucking honey, taking flies, or contending with other birds ; two or 

 three will rout a flock of the Blue-bellied Parrots, a genus of birds 

 to which these, as well as the Wattled Species, seem to bear great 

 antipathy. 



6 —KNOB-FRONTED HONEY-EATER, 



Merops corniculatus, Ind. Orn. i. 276. 

 Corbi-Calao, Levail. Am. et Ind. i. 69. pi. 24. 



Knob-fronted Bee-Eater, Gen. Syn. Sup. ii. 151. White's Journ. pi. p. 190. Skate's 

 Zool. viii. 183. 



SIZE of a Missel Thrush ; length fourteen inches. Bill one inch 



and a half long, a little bent, pale brown, the tip dusky ; nostrils 

 vol. iv. y 



