BLUE-FACED HONEY-EATER. 
abdomen, sides of body, thighs and under tail-coverts ; chin blackish with hair- 
like tips to the feathers ; throat and fore-neck dark slate-grey with blackish shaft¬ 
lines ; axillaries and under wing-coverts dark brown ; under-surface of flight- 
quills also dark brown with a patch of buff towards the base ; lower aspect of tail 
greyish-brown with whitish tips to the feathers. Eyes and feet grey, bill, black 
tip (to nostrils), remainder pale bluish-white. Eye-space below eye deep blue, 
above pale blue. Total length 314 mm. ; culmen 30, wing 154, tail 125, tarsus 
33. Figured. Collected at Inkerraan, North Queensland, on the 16th of April. 
1907, and is the type of E. c. connectens. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
The young take on the adult plumage from the nest. The head-feathers, which in the adult 
are black, are in the young brown, and the throat-feathers only greyish. 
A young bird has the tip of the bill to the nostrils black, remainder yellow. 
The eye-space in a line above the eye bright yellowish-green ; below this brownish 
green.' Legs pale brownish olive-green. Eyes pale creamy-yellow ; eye-lid nearly 
black. 
Nest. “ Usually this relines with strips of bark the deserted tenement of Pomatostomus 
temporalis or forms its nest in a depression at the top of the stick- and twig-built 
nest of this species. It is formed on an oblong platform of sticks and twigs eighteen 
inches in length, nine inches in width by six inches in depth, and is cup-shaped in 
form in the centre, made of strips of bark, the inside being lined with finer strips 
and shreds of bark, dried grass stems and horsehair, averaging externally six inches 
in diameter by three inches and three-quarters in depth and is compactly built, 
strips of bark being intermingled thoughout the centre of the foundation.” (North.) 
Eggs. “ Two form a clutch, oval or elongate-oval in form, the shell being close-grained, 
smooth and slightly lustrous. They vary in ground-colour from a rich salmon 
to a pale fleshy-buff, and typically are sparingly but distinctly spotted and blotched 
with purplish-red or chestnut-brown, intermingled with a few underlying markings 
of a fainter hue ; the latter in some specimens are bluish-grey. 32-33 mm. by 24. 
(ib.). 
Breeding-season. June to December (January). 
This is yet another striking looking bird which received three names 
from Latham, as he examined drawings and paintings made from different 
specimens by different people. Thus, upon the examination of some drawings 
made by General Davies he based his Blue-eared Grakle; one of the three 
birds named in connection with his note I have already given under a preceding 
species, Myzanthe melanocephela. Then from the drawings of Mr. Lambert 
he described his Blue-cheeked Bee-eater and also his Blue-cheeked Thrush. 
No notes were given of its habits and apparently Latham did not recognise 
Watling’s painting No. 132, which Sharpe has referred here, and quoted 
Watling’s note as follows: “ The yellow or willow-green about the eye is 
entirely bare of feathers, resembling much yellow morocco leather. The 
white on the vertex forms a crescent, with its concave side towards the bill, 
the dark feathers from which to the bill are very short and thin and of a deep 
lead colour. The belly and feathers of the tail about the vent are white. 
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