RED WATTLE-BIRD. 
copies tliis is mdistiiict and in many cases obliterated. The List of Subscribers 
is missing, and when it is included in later copies it is inserted hi the middle of 
Sheet A. In tliis proof copy the plate of the Wattled Bee-eater is missing, 
but that of the female is present. This bkd is described in the text opposite 
this page, and apparently when attention was dra'wn to tliis fact the complete 
description given on p. 240, being recognised as a duplicate, was suppressed, 
and in its place was inserted the description of the Wattled Merops, female. 
There can be no doubt, whatever the reasons for the alteration, that Merops 
carunculatus appeared on p. 240 in the earliest copies, and was cancelled m the 
later ones. Consequently the correct primary reference for this species will read: 
Merops carunculatus White, Joum. Voy. New South Wales, first print, 
p. 240, (before August 9th) 1790 : Near Port Jackson. 
Phillips gave an illustration of this species in his book and called it the 
Wattled Bee-eater, but did not give it a Latin name, and Latham, who had 
access to Phillip’s specimens and assisted in drawing up the descrijitions, while 
his daughter prepared the paintings, included it in his Index Ornithologicus 
^vith the name Merops carunculatas. 
The name selected was an mifortunate choice and was the cause of many 
complications aftenvard, which will be dealt with in the technical part of this 
species’ history. 
When Latham examined the Lambert drawings he added as habits: 
“ Inhabits New Holland, especially the seashores, and are pretty immerous; 
they chatter much, and are bold to a great degree, for when other birds, even 
larger and stronger than themselves, approach, they drive them away. Their 
chief food is insects, but they likewise are very fond of sucking the honey 
from the different kinds of Banksia, They are known to the natives by the 
name of Qoo-gwar-neck, which word much resembles the kind of note they are 
incessantly chattering.” 
This note was copied almost word for word from that given by Watling. 
as shown on the Watling drawings and reprinted by Sharpe in the Hist. Coll. 
Nat. Hist. Brit. Mus., Vol. II., p. 124. 
Vigors and Horsfield, in their exposition of the Australian Birds in the 
collection of the Limiean Society, transferred the name to a Tasmanian bird, 
recording Caley’s note: “ AU my specimens of this bird were shot in Van 
Diemen’s Land. I have met with it at Western Port in the trees close to the 
seaside. To my knowledge it never occurred about Sydney, although it is said 
by Mr. White to be an inhabitant of the colony,” and then introduced as a new 
species Anthochcera lewinii, the true Merops carunculatus of Latham, WTiting: 
“ W’^e take this opportunity of characterizing the foUowing bird, which has been 
generally considered the young of Anih. carunculata.” 
VOL. xn. 
65 
