WHITE-EYE. 
the eye, succeeded by a black line under the eye ; head, mantle, upper wing- 
coverts and upper tail-coverts bright olive-green ; back grey, blending into 
the greenish mantle ; wings and tail dark brown, the primaries and tail- 
feathers edged with bright olive-green ; chin, throat and under tail-coverts 
greenish-yellow ; rest of tho under-surface greyish-blue, darkest on the chest, 
and approaching greyish-white on the abdomen. Bill dark brown, the basal 
half of the lower mandible lighter coloured ; tarsus dark grey. Dimensions 
in inches : Length 4f ; wing ; bill 2 T ^ ; tail 2 ; tarsus 
Campbell and Barnard, recently reporting upon Birds from North Queens¬ 
land, stated: “ Whether the Rockingham Bay bird be a subspecies of lateralis 
(i.e., dorsalis) as Mathews contends, or not, it is the same kind of Zosterops 
that was obtained on the Capricorn Group by the Union’s Expedition 1909, 
and provisionally named Z. chlorocephalus. These little birds were fairly 
plentiful in the coastal country, and their chirping songs were always heard 
at dawn, provided noises caused by wind, etc., did not drown the birds’ 
voices.” 
Macgillivray also wrote: “ This is the mainland Silver-eye. It was 
quite common along the edge of the scrub, whether bordering the open forest 
or overhanging the river. The broad ring around the eye is a conspicuous 
feature in this species. Curiously enough, although this bird is so common 
on the mainland, the type (of Z. ramsayi) is labelled as having been obtained 
on Palm Island, Torres Strait.” 
When I prepared my “ Reference List ” in 1912 I accepted North’s 
conclusion that the yellow-throated and white-throated birds w r ere referable 
to the same species and, therefore, arranged the subspecies thus : 
Zosterops lateralis lateralis (Latham). 
New South Wales. 
I rejected ccerulescens as inapplicable and synonymised Z. dorsalis Vigors 
and Horsfield. 
Zosterops lateralis westernensis (Quoy and Gaimard). 
Victoria, South Australia. 
Zosterops lateralis tasmanica Mathews. 
“ Differs from Z. 1. lateralis in having a much narrower grey mantle. 
(Devonport) Tasmania.” 
Tasmania. 
Zosterops lateralis halmaturina A. G. Campbell. 
Kangaroo Island. 
Zosterops lateralis ramsayi Masters. 
North Queensland (Cape York). 
Of this I ranked Z. westernensis vegeta Hartert as synonymous. 
j it 
151 
