Genus— NEOPHILEMON. 
<* 
Neophilemon Mathews, Austral Avian ' 
Record, Vol. I., pt. 5, p. 117, Dec. 
24th, 1912. Type (by original 
designation) .. .. .. Philedon buceroides Swainson, i.e. auct. 
= Philemon buceroides yorki Mathews. 
When I introduced Neophilemon I diagnosed the genus thus: “ Differs from 
Philemon in the presence of a high swollen protuberance on the basal half 
of the keel of the upper mandible, and in its comparatively shorter tail; < 
from Tropidorhynchus it differs in the nature of the protuberance, and in the 
feathering on the top of the head, and in lacking the pomted scaly breast- 
feathers and in its more powerful bill and longer first primary of the wing.” 
The “ Eriar Birds ” constitute a remarkable series of birds inhabiting I 
Papuasia and Australia, and a large super-genus Philemon may be easily 
recognised, but cannot be succinctly diagnosed as it contains large and small ' 
birds with long and short bills, bai*e or feathered heads, straight or curved 
bills with or without protuberances of varied sizes at the base of the culmen. 
In my “ Reference List ” in 1912 I classed all the species under Philemon, 
but in my 1913 “ List ” I aUoAved four groups, placing argenticeps under 
Philemon, buceroides under Neophilemon, corniculatus under Tropidrhynchus, 
and citreogularis (as orientalis) under Microphilemon. The consideration of 
the whole series for the pmpose of this work shows that argenticeps and 
“ buceroides ” (auct.) are closely allied but are easily separable from Philemm, ( j 
and I reject Philemon from the Australian List placing the two together, 
but as the name Neophilemon may be questioned I propose Argentiphilemon 
for Tropidorhynchus argenticeps Gould. 
The genus Philemon was proposed by Vieillot and the type is Merops 
moluccensis Gmehn {Philedon Cuvier independently proposed is a different 
spelling of the same name, both being taken from Commerson’s MS.), and I 
here diagnose that group as it is important in view of its usage for the whole 
series. The type is a large Honey-eater with a long curved bill, thin neck, 
long wings, long square tail and short stout legs and feet. The head is 
feathered but there is a bare eye species. The bill is long, shghtly curved, 
longer than the head, laterally compressed but basally expanded, the culmen 
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