THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
eggs by the 14th. It was in a paper bark at about 20 feet from the 
ground.” 
Ramsay wrote under the name M . albogularis: “ Common all along 
the coast line, and for a considerable distance hi land, from Brisbane to 
Cooktown,” and then later included it from Derby, writing “ This is evidently 
the northern and western representative of M. lunulatus, but is quite distinct 
from, and must not be confounded with the next very distinct species, M. 
Icetior (Gould).” 
Mr. Wilson has stated that he has seen two pahs of adults feeding one 
lot of young ones and also that from one nest he has taken two obvious sets 
of eggs. Also that the birds built up the sides of the nest after the eggs were 
heavily incubated. 
This fine species has a somewhat complex technical history which can 
be shortly stated. 
The drawings made by Watling and others and sent to England by J. 
White or some one else came into the possession of Mr. A. Lambert, and 
perhaps some duplicates were purchased by Francillon or else they were loaned 
to him. At this time it is difficult to find out exactly as the matter is quite 
complicated. Anyhow, Vieillot had the examination of some from Francillon 
and was allowed to copy them in the work known as the “Oiseaux Dores,” 
and in this instance a name given by Shaw is cited by Vieillot in connection 
with one of these reproductions. 
Well figured in the Lambert or Watling drawings, Latham confused it 
with a distinct species even as Gould himself later did as related under the 
species concerned, so that it escaped nomination by Latham. 
Vieillot, however, named it as a new species from birds collected by Peron 
and Lesueur in the Paris Museum and renamed it from a Temminckian 
intimation. In the first place he named it M eliihreptus albicoUis and to 
Te mmin ck’s bird he gave the inappropriate name of M. albicapillus. Probably 
this was merely a pen slip, and the name was given to the same specimen as 
was later figured in the Planches Coloriees (V Oiseaux, where Temminck named 
it more correctly Meliphaga atricapilla. In the 1822 issue of Lewin’s Birds 
of New South Wales this species was figured under the name Black-crowned 
Honey-sucker on plate 24. 
Simultaneously Swainson figured it in his Zoological Illustrations where 
he named it Melliphaga torquata, noting that he w r ould not have done so on 
account of Lewin’s figure had his plate not been previously prepared. He 
also draws attention to Shaw’s incorrect account of the colouring of the 
bird. 
Gould was very much attracted by the geographical differentiation 
250 
