MELILESTES ILIOLOPHUS, SalvacL 
Long-plumed Honey-eater. 
Melilestes iliolophus , Salvad. Ann. Mus. Civic. Genov, vii. p. 951 (1875), xvi. p. 75 (1880). — Id. Orn. Papuasia 
e delle Molucche, ii. p. 316 (1881), iii. p. 543 (1882). — Sharpe, Journ. Linn. Soc., Zool. xvi. p. 437 
(1882). 
Arachnothera iliolophus , Gadow, Cat. Birds in Brit. Mus. ix. p. 3, pi. i. fig. 2 (1884). 
The genus Melilestes has been united by Dr. Gadow to the genus Arachnothera ; but in our opinion Count 
Salvadori was right in placing it with the Meliphagidc e or family of Honey-suckers, rather than with the 
Sun-birds or Nectarinndoe , where it is located by Dr. Gadow. The long fluffy plumage and the silky tufts on 
the flanks are characters which ally the genus to the Honey-suckers, though the general appearance of 
the birds is very much that of the Spider-hunters ( Arachnothera ). 
Count Salvadori includes four species in his genus Melilestes, of which the present and M. af/inis 
(a species summarily suppressed without just cause by Dr. Gadow, who has never seen a specimen) are 
distinguished by their greyish-olive underparts. A fifth species has been discovered since Salvadori 
wrote, which is figured in the present work. 
The present species was discovered in the islands of Jobi and Miosnoum, in the Bay of Geelvink, by 
Dr. Beccari, and we cannot find any marked difference between some of the typical examples now in the 
British Museum and others obtained in South-eastern New Guinea, where it has been obtained by 
Mr. Goldie and Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Astrolabe Mountains. The following description is from one 
of Mr. Goldie’s specimens; — 
Adult. General colour above dull olive-green, the head a little duller than the back ; feathers of the lower 
back and rump very long and silky, and a little lighter than the rest of the back ; wing-coverts like the back ; 
the primary-coverts and quills dusky brown, edged with olive-green like the back, the secondaries more 
broadly ; tail dusky black ; lores and feathers round the eye ashy olive ; ear-coverts lighter olive ; under 
surface of body very pale yellowish, ashy on the cheeks and throat; sides of the body with long silky plumes 
of paler yellow ; under tail-coverts like the abdomen, and washed with pale olive-green ; axillaries light 
yellow like the sides of the body; under wing-coverts light ashy brown, washed with yellowish olive; quills 
dusky below, whitish along the edge of the inner web. Total length 3 - 9 inches, culmen 0’85, wing 2‘ 7 , 
tail L45, tarsus 085. 
The figures in the Plate are drawn from two specimens procured by Mr. H. O. Forbes in the Sogeri 
district of the Astrolabe Mountains. 
[R. B. S.] 
