THE BIRDS OE AUSTRALIA. 
Meanwhile, when Vigors and Horsfield examined the Australian birds 
in the Collection of the Linnean Society they named the species Mdiphga 
cardinalis as of Gmelin, the name given to a similar bird from the Island of 
Tanna in the Pacific Ocean. However, they proposed a new genus, Myzmek, 
for the species, and wrote: “ Mr. Caley informs us that he did not himself 
meet many birds of this species, although he understood them to be plentiful; 
his not meeting them probably arose, as he says, from their being inhabitants 
of brushes. His researches were chiefly in the forest scrubs, where his specimens 
were procured. The colonists call this bird Little Soldier.''' 
Gould’s notes are rather brief : “ Tins beautiful little bird is an inhabitant 
of the thick brushes of New South Wales, particularly those near the coast 
and those clothing the liilly portions of the interior, and I have reason to believe 
that it is rarely, if ever, found among the trees of the open parts of the country. 
I have not yet seen specimens from the western, and only a single example from 
the northern coasts, whence I infer that the south-eastern part of the continent 
is its natural habitat. It gives a decided preference to those parts of the forest 
that abound with flowering plants, whose fragrant blossoms attract large numbers 
of insects, upon which and the pollen of the flower cups it chiefly subsists.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has written me: “ This beautiful little Honey-eater I 
have noted in both New South Wales and Queensland, where it was seen amongst 
the topmost branches of the very tall trees, feeding on the nectar of the flowers, 
and it was most difficult to obtain specimens, as the smallness of the bird and 
the great distance made it hard to discern them and still harder for the small 
charge to take effect. I noted that the birds were not then in full livery, there 
still being an amount of brown on the feathers. I later met with this little 
gem at Palm Grove, Ourimbah Creek, in the Hawkesbury district.- Here the 
birds kept to the tall subtropical tree-tops, but occasionally they came 
down near the creek, presumably to drink, as the days -were extremely hot. 
I secured two specimens and again noted they were not in full liver}'. This 
was in October and the previous time it was December.” 
Mr. L. G. Chandler wrote me: “In the year of the great drought (1902) 
many northern buds came into southern Victoria. These birds came in dozens. 
I saw the first bird while walking along a cattle track (in June) at the Basin, 
Dandenong Ranges. It was a male extracting the nectar from the bells of 
a white heath ; the picture was perfect, the blood-red head gloving brightly 
against the snowy wliiteness of the flower. Looking round, I noticed the 
heath was alive with many dozens of these birds.” 
Captain S. A. White has written me : “ This glorious little bird is fairly 
plentiful in Southern Queensland and the islands near the coast. It generally 
keeps well up in the tops of the trees where its striking plumage makes it appear 
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