Order PASSERIFORMES. Family MELITHREPTIDM. 
No. 645. 
SUGOMEL NIGER. 
BLACK HONEY-EATER. 
(Plate 516.) 
Myzomela nigra Gould, Birds Austr. and Adj. Isl., pt. n., pi. 8, Feb. 1838 : Interior 
of New South Wales. 
Myzomela nigra Gould, Birds Austr. and Adj. Isl., pt. n., pi. (8), 1838; id., Birds Austr., 
pt. rv. (Vol. IV., pi. 66), Sept. 1st, 1841 ; id., Handb. Birds Austr,, Vol. I., p. 558, 
1865 ; Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., p. 190, 1878; Forbes, Proc. Zool. 
Soc. (Bond.), 1879, p. 275 ; Gadow, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. IX., p. 138, 1884; 
Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 14, 1888; Hall, Key Birds Austr., p. 37, 1899; 
Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, Vol. I., p. 354, 1901; Hall, Emu, Vol. I., 
p. 98, 1902 (N.W.A.); Carter, ib., Vol. III., p. 91, 1903 (M.W.A.); Lawson, ib., 
Vol. IV., p. 135, 1905 (W.A.); North, Austr. Mus. Spec. Cab. No. 1, Vol. II., p. 97, 
1906; Mathews, Handl. Birds Austral., p. 93, 1908 ; Gibson, Emu, Vol. IX., p. 74, 
1909 (S.W.A.); Whitlock, ib., p. 210, 1910 (W.A.); Macgillivray, ib., Vol. X., pp. 
34-93, 1910 (N.S.W.); id., ib., Vol. XIII., p. 176, 1914 (N.Q.); Alexander, ib., 
Vol. XVI., p. 41, 1916 (S.W.A.); Ashby, ib., Vol. XVII., p. 220, 1918 (W.A); 
Campbell, ib., Vol. XVTII., p. 5, 1918. 
Myzomela nigra nigra Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 396, Jan. 31st, 1912. 
Myzomela nigra westralensis Mathews, ib., (Day Dawn) West Australia. 
Myzomela nigra ashbyi Mathews, Austral Avian Record, Vol. I., pt. 4, p. 98, Sept. 18th ; 
1912: Mount Barker, South Australia. 
Cissomela nigra nigra Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 264, 1913. 
Cissomela nigra ashbyi Mathews, ib. ; S. A. White, Emu, Vol. XVIII., p. 24, 1918. 
Distribution. Extra-tropical Australia north-west to Derbj' ; apparently an interior 
bird, not coastal. 
Adult male. Entire upper-surface including the top of the head, back, wings and tail 
black, somewhat paler on the flight-quills ; sides of face, throat, fore-neck and 
middle of breast black like the crowm of the head; sides of breast, abdomen and 
under tail-coverts white ; thighs, axillaries and under wing-coverts black; under¬ 
surface of flight-quills and lower aspect of tail blackish-brown. Eyes dark brown, 
bill and legs black. Total length 120 mm. ; culmen 16, wing 68, tail 40, tarsus 14. 
Figured. Collected at Day Dawn, West Australia, on the 25th of July, 1903, and 
is the type of M. n. westralensis. 
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