MELITHREPTUS GULARIS, Gould. 
Black-throated Honey-eater. 
Hmnatops gularis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. p. 144 ; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I. 
This species is very abundant in all parts of South Australia, where it inhabits the large Eucalypti. During 
my stay in Adelaide I frequently saw it on some of the high trees that had been allowed to remain by the 
sides of the streets in the middle of the city. From this locality it extends its range eastward to New South 
Wales, where it is much more rare, and where it can only be sought for with the certainty of finding it along 
the extreme limits of the colony towards the interior. I killed several specimens in the Upper Hunter 
district, and observed it to be tolerably numerous on the plains in the neighbourhood of the river Namoi, 
and that it breeds in all these countries is proved by my having killed the young in different stages of growth 
in all of them. In its habits and economy it differs considerably from the Melithreptus mlidirostris ; for in- 
stance, I never saw it perch on the boles of the trees, as is usual with that species, neither is it so exclu- 
sively confined to the large trees. It is a very noisy bird, constantly uttering a loud harsh grating call 
while perched on the topmost dead or hare branch of a high tree ; the call being as frequently uttered by 
the female as by the male. Like the Melithreptus lunulatus, it frequents the leafy branches, which it threads 
and creeps among with the greatest ease and dexterity, assuming in its progress a variety of graceful 
attitudes. Insects and the pollen of flowers being almost its sole food, those trees abounding with blossoms 
are visited by it in preference to others. 
There is no variation in the colouring of the sexes, but there is a very considerable difference between 
the young and old birds, particularly in the colouring of the soft parts ; the young are much less brilliant 
than the young of M. mlidirostris , in which the colouring of the soft parts far excels those of the adults. 
With the nest and eggs of this species I am unacquainted ; they are therefore desiderata to my cabinet, 
and would be thankfully received from any person resident in the colony where the bird is so common. That 
the nest will be cup-shaped in form, constructed of grasses, &c., and suspended by the rim to the smaller 
branches of the Eucalypti, and that the eggs will be two or three in number, there can be little doubt. 
Crown of the head black, an occipital band of white terminating at each eye ; ear-coverts and back of the 
neck black ; back and rump golden olive; wings and tail brown; throat greyish white, with a central stripe 
of black ; under surface greyish brown ; bill black ; feet and tarsi brownish orange ; irides hazel ; bare skin 
above the eye beautiful bluish green. 
The young have the gape, lower mandible, and feet yellowish orange. 
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size. 
