Genus— P TILOTINA. 
Ptilotina Mathews, Austral Avian Record, 
Vol. II., pts. 2-3, p. 60, Oct. 23rd, 1913. 
Type (by original designation) .. .. Ptilotis analoga mixta Mathews. 
I diagnosed this group thus : “ Differs from Meliphaga Lewin (type, M. lewini 
Swainson) in its stouter bill and feet, though shorter wing and much shorter 
tail; from Microptilotis Mathews in its stouter comparatively shorter bill 
though longer wing and stouter feet.” 
The so-called genus Ptilotis was accepted by the coloration of the ear- 
coverts ; all Australasian Honey-eaters with coloured (generally yellow) ear- 
coverts being classed in the one genus irrespective of all other differences. 
In this series several subsidiary groups as well as distinct genera can be 
characterised. 
The present genus consists of medium-sized Honey-eaters with bills long 
and stout, long wings, long tail and short and stout legs and feet. 
The bill is slightly shorter than the head, laterally compressed anteriorly, 
a little expanded basally, gape fleshy, the culmen arched and semi-keeled, 
the tip decurved and posteriorly notched; the nasal groove fairly long 
and linear, nostrils open but operculate ; the under mandible strong, the 
gonys less than half the length of the bill but marked : the interramal space 
long, fairly narrow and feathered; rictal bristles few. 
The whig has the first primary short, but a little more than half the length 
of the second, which is shorter than the secondaries ; the third primary about 
equal to the seventh, the fourth, fifth and sixth a little longer and equal. The 
tail is long, and square in shape. 
The tarsus is booted in front and bilaminate behind ; the outer toe is longer 
than the inner toe, while with the claw it is about equal to the middle toe alone; 
the middle toe and claw longer than the hind-toe and claw, all the claws short 
and rounded. 
