BLACK HONEY-EATER, 
This is one of the birds that Gould figured in the two parts of the Birds 
of Australia which he published before he went to Australia, and which he 
desired to be cancelled when he re-commenced his work on his return. 
Gould’s field-notes read : “ This most active little bird is peculiar to the 
interior of Australia, over which it has an extensive range. Gilbert found 
it at Swan River, and I met with it on the plains near the Namoi; here it 
was always on the Myalls (Acacia pendula), while in Western Australia it 
generally evinced a preference for the sapling gums. Although it has the 
feathered tongue and sometimes partakes of the sweets of the flowers, it feeds 
almost exclusively on insects, which it procures both on the blossoms and 
among the thickly foliagecl branches. The male frequently pours forth a 
feeble plaintive note, perched upon some elevated dead branch, where he 
sits with his neck stretched out and without any apparent motion except the 
swelling of the throat and the movement of the bill. The flight of this bird 
is remarkably quick, and performed with sudden zigzag starts. The female 
differs remarkably from the male in the colouring of the plumage, and as is 
the case with many other birds, is much more difficult to detect than the 
male, which is always more animated, and frequently betrays its presence 
by his song.” 
Mr. Thos. P. Austin has written me (in 1917) from Cobbora, New South 
Wales: “ The first time I saw this species was when the country was suffering 
from a very severe drought about three years ago, and then only about half 
a dozen birds, but this year during September and October a fan number 
of them put in an appearance, but they are only to be found in heavy forest 
country through which a very big bush fire passed the summer before last, 
killing all the smaller trees and saplings. These are now all shooting up again 
thickly with suckers from the roots. The birds are rather shy and many of 
them would escape notice only for their plaintive single note, which some¬ 
what resembles that of Megalurus gramineus, only is much more feeble. 
During the last three weeks (Oct.-Nov.) I have seen about a dozen of then 
nests all containing two eggs. No nest was placed more than three feet from 
the ground, but most of them were only about fifteen inches.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor has written : “ These birds are generally found in the 
more northern parts of Australia, but at times during dry periods they have 
come down as far south as the Adelaide Plains, or, more correctly speaking, to 
the hills that border these plains, as I have seen them in the Mount Lofty Ranges, 
at Black Hill, only eight or ten miles from Adelaide, and also at Tea-tree 
Gully. This was some years ago, during an exceedingly dry spell of years, 
so I take it that these birds were forced down by circumstances, by the dried 
and parched conditions of the North. I noted that the birds, unlike the Blood 
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