THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
which extends to behind the eye where it widens out, becomes yellow, and finally 
yellowish-white with black shaft-lines on the sides of the neck; chin, throat, and 
breast bufi ; abdomen and sides of body yeUowish-white with dark brown elongated 
centres; thighs pale brown; rmder tail-coverts white with dark brown shaft- 
streaks ; axillaries and under wing-coverts buff; under-smface of flight-quilk 
dark brown with buffy-white margins; lower aspect of tail similar to its upper- 
surface but the dark portion paler. Total length 220 mm. ; culmen 18, wing 107, 
tail 105, tarsus 27. Mgured. Collected in North Queensland and is the type of 
A. r. queenslandicus. 
The sexes are alike. 
Immature female. Fore-head, top of the head and back of the neck ash-grey, sides of the 
head tinged with dark ash ; mantle and wing-coverts dark ash-grey, margined 
with buff; upper tad-coverts grey with a broad mesial shaft-streak of dark brown; 
primaries and secondaries blacldsh-brown. the former margined towards the extremity 
with wliite, secondaries margined on their outer webs with dark yellowish-olive 
and widely bordered at the extremity with white; tail-feathers hlackish-brown, 
narrowly fringed with olive and widely tipped with white ; lores and a line through 
the eye black ; a tuft of yellow feathers below the eye ; ear-coverts silvery-white; 
a line of blackish feathers along the sides of the throat; chin, throat and fore-neck 
rich buff; remainder of the under-parts including the under tad-coverts greyish- 
white, each feather with a broad mesial streak of brownish-ash; imder-suriace 
of wings greyish-ash widely margined on the irmer web with pinkish-buff. Eyes 
bluish, bid base and gape and bare space round e.ye rich flesh, tip black. Collected 
N.W. of Port Augusta, South Australia, on the 4th of October, 1911. 
Young birds resemble the adults, but the centres to the feathers on the upper-parts are 
duUer in colour, rendering it more uniform ; the spines are fewer and shorter on the 
ear-openings ; the throat and fore-neck is paler and the remainder of the under¬ 
surface is less conspicuously streaked.” (North.) 
Nest. Cup-shaped, suspended from a fork of a twig by the rims. Composed of grass 
and rootlets, with spiders’ cocoons and thistledown on the outside. Lined with 
grass, and on the bottom some softer material. Outside measurements, 3 to 4 inches 
deep by 4 or 5 wide. Inside, 1^ to deep by 2J to 3 wide (two nests). 
A cup-shaped structure, composed of grasses well matted together with spiders’ 
webs, and sometimes a little sheep’s wool, lined on the bottom with a pad of wool, 
cowhair, fur or other such soft material. Suspended by the rim from the branches 
or twigs of a tree, vine, or bush, and placed at heights varying from 10 to 60 feet 
or more up from the ground. Dimensions over aU, 4^ to 6| inches across by 2^ to 
nearly 3 inches in depth. 
Eggs. Two to three eggs form the clutch, rarely three. A clutch of two eggs taken at 
Lake Way, Western Australia, on the 24th of September, 1909, is of a very pale olive- 
ground colour, spotted, cliiefly at the larger end, with dark to light umber and 
purplish-grey. Ovals in shape. Surface of shell fine and smooth, and rather glossy. 
26-27 by 18-19 mm. 
Breeding-months. August to end November, 
Gould’s notes after lie had seen this bird in Austraha read (he described 
it before he went out as a new genus and species): “ The Spiny-cheeked 
Honey-eater ranges very widely over the interior of Austraha. I observed it 
to be very numerous on the Lower Namoi to the northward of the Liverpool 
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