MELIPOTES GYM NO PS, Sclater. 
Naked-faced Honey-eater. 
Melipotes gymnops, Sclater, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1873, p. 695, fig. 3 & pi. 56. — A. B, Meyer, Sitzungsber. der k.-k. 
Akad. d. Wissenschaften zu Wien, lxx. 1874, p. 128. — T. Salvadori, Ann. del Mus. Civ. di Genova, 
vol. vii. 1875, p. 776. 
The discovery of the present species in the Arfak Mountains of New Guinea makes an important addition 
to the great group of Honey-eaters — a group almost peculiar to the Papuan Islands and Australia. The 
size of the bird under consideration is about that of Melidectes torquatus ; but it. differs in its shorter and 
more robust bill and in its much more naked face. The only remark made by Dr. Sclater is as follows : — 
“This form of the Meliphagine family is very distinct on account of the denudation of the whole ocular 
region, which is fringed below by a narrow caruncle. D’Albertis’s notes do not give the colour of these 
naked parts; but they are probably orange or flesh-colour. The bill is short and rather stout; the nostrils 
are short and suboval, and situated in a shallow groove near the central feathers.” 
The following description is taken from a specimen in Dr. Meyer’s collection : — Throat and chest 
blackish, becoming lighter on the flanks and abdomen, the light marks assuming the form of triangular 
spots; under tail-coverts pale buff; under tail-feathers brownish grey, the shafts, as in the other species 
of Honey-eaters, being whitish ; bill black ; feet bluish black ; large naked space round the eye wavy, 
orange-yellow; crown of the head and back blackish brown, lighter on the rump; tail-feathers pale 
brown, edged with olive ; wings, on the upper surface brown, margined as in the tail ; under surface of 
the wings rich buff, passing into brown on the primaries. 
Total length 8i inches, bill 1, wing 4a., tail 5, tarsi 1|. 
Hub. Atam, apud montes Papuanos Arfak. 
The two birds in the accompanying Plate are of the size of life, from specimens in Dr. Meyer’s 
collection. 
