ENTOMYZA CYANOTIS, Swains. 
Blue-faced Entomyza. 
Cracula cyanotis, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxix. — Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. yii. p. 474. 
Blue-cheeked Honey-sucker, Meliphaga cyanops , Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pi. 4. 
Graculine Honey-eater, Lath. Gen. Hist., yol. iv. p. 166. 
Blue-eared Grakle, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 130. 
Turdus cyaneus, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xlii. 
Blue-cheeked Thrush, lb. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 184. — Gen. Hist., vol. v. p. 124. 
Tropidorhynchus cyanotis, Yig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 325. 
Entomyza cyanotis, Swains. Class, of Birds, vol. ii. p. 328.- — G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, p. 16. 
L’ Heoro-taire graculS, Vieill. Ois. Dor., tom. ii. p. 125. pi. 87, young. 
Graculine Creeper, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 242, young. 
Graculine Honey-eater, var. A., Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 166, young. 
Pale-cheeked Honey -eater, lb., p. 167, young. 
Merops cyanops, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxxiv, young. 
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, lb. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 154, young. — Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 171, young. 
Blue-cheeked Honey -eater, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 167, young. 
• -, var. A. and B., Ib., p. 168, young. 
White-crowned Honey-eater, Ib., p. 169, young. 
Batikin, Aborigines of the coast of New South Wales. 
Blue-eye of the Colonists. 
This atti'active and beautiful Honey-eater, one of the finest of the Meliphagidce, is strictly indigenous to 
New South Wales, where it is abundant and very generally dispersed : I observed it in nearly every part of 
the colony I visited, both in winter and summer. I also shot a single specimen on the Namoi, but as this 
was almost the only one I saw beyond the mountain ranges, I believe its most natural habitat to be between 
the great dividing chain of mountains and the sea. In all probability it may he found far to the northward 
on the eastern coast, but it has not yet been observed in South Australia, neither is it an inhabitant of Van 
Diemen’s Land. 
In habits and actions the Blue-faced Honey-eater bears a striking resemblance to the members of the 
genera Ptilotis and Hcematops ; like them, it is found almost exclusively on the Eucalypti, searching among 
the blossoms and smaller leafy branches for its food, which is of a mixed character, consisting partly of 
insects and partly of honey, and probably, judging from others of its family, berries and fruits, but this 
latter supposition I was not able to verify. Mr. Caley states, that he once saw “ several of them fre- 
quenting a tree, where they were very busy in obtaining something that appeared to have exuded from 
a wounded part. I do not know what the substance could be, otherwise than a kind of gum of a bitter 
and astringent taste.” As I have never detected them in feeding on this or any similar substance, I should 
rather suppose they were in search of the insects that might have been attracted by this exudation. 
I have frequently seen eight or ten of these bold and spirited birds, with numerous other small Honey- 
eaters and Parrakeets, on a single tree, displaying the most elegant and easy movements, clinging and 
hanging in every variety of position, frequently at the extreme ends of the small, thickly-flowered branches, 
bending them down with their weight ; they may, however, be easily distinguished from the other birds 
with which they are in company by their superior size, the brilliancy of their blue face, and the contrasted 
colours of their plumage ; they are rendered equally conspicuous by the pugnacity with which they chase 
and drive about the other species resorting to the same tree. 
It frequently utters a rather loud and monotonous cry, not worthy the name of a song. 
I observed a most curious fact respecting the nidification of this bird : in every instance that I found 
its eggs, they were deposited on the deserted, dome-shaped, large nest of the Pomatorhinus , so numerous in 
the Apple-tree Flats in the district of the Upper Hunter ; never within the dome, hut in a neat round 
depression on the top. I had many opportunities of driving the female off the nest, and I can therefore 
speak with confidence as to this fact. Whether this bird resorts only to places where it may avail itself 
of the nest of the Pomatorhinus, or whether, under other circumstances, it constructs a nest for itself, 
are points to which I would call the attention of those who are favourably situated for investigating them ; 
and who, by so doing, would render the history of this species so much the more complete. It is 
