THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
with minute spots of very pale reddish-brown and purplish-grey, and being confined 
chiefly to the larger ends where an indistinct cap of clouded markings is 
formed. Swollen ovals in shape. Surface of shell smooth and rather glossy. 21 by 
15-16 mm. 
Nest. An open cup-sliaped structure, usually placed in the foliage of a Mangrove tree 
standing in or near salt water. 
Breeding-months. August to December (to March or April). 
Gould described most of the species of the genus “ Ptilotis ,” but even 
then favourites were noted, as in this case Gould wrote: “ It is pleasing to 
record for the first time a species so well marked as the present, and which 
differs from the other members of its genus in the distinct bars of pale yellow 
and brown which occupy the throat and fore-part of the neck. All the specimens 
that have yet come under my notice were sent to me a few years since by Strange, 
who collected them on the low swampy islands lying off the eastern coast of 
Australia, northward of Moreton Bay; they comprise examples of both sexes, 
ascertained by dissection,- and the only difference between them consists, as 
is usual with the other members of the genus, in the smaller size of the female. 
For a Ptilotis this is a large and robust species, equalling in size the P. sonora, 
to which it has a close affinity.” 
Ramsay added a few years afterward: “I find no mention in my note¬ 
book of meeting with this bird at Rockingham Bay; but I found it plentiful 
on an island off Port Denison and near Cleveland Bay, about 60 miles due south 
of Rockingham Bay. They frequent the mangroves, and are to be met with 
in considerable numbers on many of the islands and mangrove sw r amps along 
the shores of various bays as far south as Moreton Bay. They congregate in 
considerable numbers, and are very pugnacious at times, fighting among them¬ 
selves and chattering as the Yellow-tufted Honey-eaters are wont to do. I 
never met with them away from the margins of the salt water.” 
Campbell described eggs from Dunk Island collected by Cornwall, and 
noted : "As far as is yet known, it frequents the mangrove belts of the Queens¬ 
land coast and islands contiguous thereto ; in fact, it is sometimes locally called 
the ‘ Island ’ Honey-eater. Mr. Cornwall recently noticed the birds on 
Franklin Islands, near Cairns, while in 1885, during an excursion made by 
Mr. A. W. Milligan and myself to the Lower Fitzroy, we found Fasciated Honey- 
eaters there. .Judging by their pleasant notes, the birds were exceedingly 
merry but extremely shy. We obtained skins.” 
North identified the “ Franklin Islands ” bird later as the Varied Honey- 
eater, and Banfield refers also the Dunk Island bird under that name, but 
Cornwall regarded his identification as correct. 
Campbell later received a bird, nest and eggs from Mr. G. A. Young, writ ing : 
✓ 
474 
