PTILOTIS CHRYSOTIS. 
Yellow-eared Honey-eater. 
Certhia chrysotis, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. xxxviii. No. 16. 
Yellow-eared Honey-eater , Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 195. No. 54. 
Meliphaga chrysotis, Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pi. v. — Vig. and Horsf, in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 314. — Gould 
in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I. 
Spot-eared Creeper, Shaw, Zool., vol. viii. p. 244. 
The Yellow-eared Honey eater is very common in New South Wales, where it inhabits the thick brushes 
near the sea, breeding and dwelling therein all the year round. I found it especially abundant in all parts 
of the river Hunter, as well as in the cedar brushes of the Liverpool and other ranges of hills. No examples 
of this bird came under my notice in South Australia, and I do not believe that it extends so far to the west- 
ward ; neither does it occur at Port Essington, in which district a different character of country and of 
vegetation prevails. Mr. Bynoe procured a single specimen on the north coast, but did not note the 
precise locality. In its habits and disposition it assimilates very closely to the Ptilotis Jlavigula of Van 
Diemen’s Land. It prefers low shrubby trees to those of a larger growth, frequently descending to the 
ground among the underwood in search of insects. No one species of the genus is more bold and fearless 
of man ; I have often been permitted to approach within a few yards of it while threading the dense brushes 
without causing it the least alarm. Like the rest of its genus, this species feeds on insects, the pollen of 
flowers, and occasionally fruits and berries. The flowering creeper upon which the bird is figured (together 
with many similar plants), growing in the utmost luxuriance on the sides of rivers, and attracting a 
corresponding amount of insect life, is often visited by the Ptilotis chrysotis, which may be observed busily 
engaged in search of its prey, heedless of the proximity of a human intruder in its sequestered haunts. It 
is not celebrated for the richness or liquidity of its notes or for the volubility of its song, but its presence, 
when not visible among the foliage, is always to he detected by its loud ringing whistling note, which is 
continually poured forth during the months of spring and summer. 
The sexes are alike in colour, but the female presents the same disparity of size that is observable 
between the sexes of the other species of the genus ; the young at an early age assume the plumage of 
the adults, but the colour is not so rich or decided. 
I found a nest of this species in a gully under the Liverpool range ; it was placed in the thickest part of 
one of the creeping plants which overhung a small pool of water ; like that of the rest of the genus, it was 
cup-shaped in form, suspended by the brim, and very neatly made of sticks and lined with very fine twigs ; 
the eggs are two in number, of a pearly white spotted with purplish brown, the spots forming a zone at 
the large end ; they are eleven and a half lines long by eight lines broad. 
Upper surface olive-green ; under surface the same colour but paler ; behind the ears an oval spot of fine 
yellow ; region of the eyes blackish ; below the eye a narrow stripe of yellow ; bill black at the tip, yellow 
at the base ; legs purplish flesh-colour ; irides dark lead-colour ; gape white. 
The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size. 
