PLECTORHYNCHA LANCEOLATA, Gould. 
Lanceolate Honey-eater. 
Plectorhyncha lanceolata, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part Y. p. 153 ; and inSyn. of Birds of Australia, Part IV. 
The Liverpool Plains and the country immediately to the northward thereof are, I believe, the only portions 
of the Australian continent in which this bird has been seen. I found it rather sparingly dispersed over the 
forests bordering the rivers Mokai and Namoi, and it appeared to increase in number as I descended the 
latter stream towards the interior. It was generally observed alone, or in pairs, keeping almost exclusively 
to the Acacice and Eucalypti. Its chief food is the pollen of flowers and insects, for the procuring of which 
among the blossoms, and for constructing its beautiful nest, its pointed spine-like bill is admirably adapted. 
I find it stated in my notes taken on the spot, that this bird possesses the peculiar habit of sitting motion- 
less among the thickest foliage of the topmost branches of the highest trees, where it cannot be seen with- 
out the closest observation, although its immediate locality is indicated by its powerful whistling note ; I 
have also heard these notes uttered by the bird while on the wing. Upon one occasion only did I discover 
its nest, which was suspended from the extreme tip of a branch of a Casuarina overhanging the stream, 
and in which the female was sitting, as represented in the Plate. The nest is outwardly composed of 
grasses, interwoven with wool and the cotton-like texture of flowers. The eggs are two in number, rather 
lengthened in shape, being eleven and a half lines long by eight lines broad ; they are of a flesh-white, very 
minutely sprinkled with reddish buff, forming an indistinct zone at the larger end. So closely do the sexes 
resemble each other in colour, that dissection alone will enable us to distinguish them ; the male, however, 
rather exceeds the female in size. 
The young, of which I killed several specimens in the month of January, had even at that early age 
assumed the general markings of the adult ; and from the circumstance of there being fully-fledged young 
and eggs at the same time, proves that these birds rear at least two broods in the season. 
Crown of the head, ear-coverts, and back of the neck mottled with black and white, a longitudinal mark 
of black running down the centre of each feather ; throat and under surface greyish white, the stem of 
each feather, which ends lanceolate, pure white ; back, wings and tail light brown ; irides brown ; bill dark 
bluish horn-colour ; legs and feet light blue. 
The figures are those of a male and a female, and a nest, of the natural size. 
