Order PASSERIFORMES. 
No. 699. 
Family MELITHREPTIDM. 
NEOPHILEMON GORBONI. 
ALLIED FRIAR-BIRD. 
(Plate 656.) 
Philemon buoeroides gordoni Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 4, p. 102, Sept. 
18th, 1912: Melville Island (Gordon Point), Northern Territory. 
Philemon huceroides gordoni Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. I., pt. 4, p. 102, Sept. 18th, 
1912 : Melville Island. 
Neophilemon bvceroides gordoni Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 292, 1913. 
Neophilemon orientalis gordoni Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. V., p. 39, Feb. 21st, 1923. 
Distribution. Melville Island. 
Adult male. Top of head and nape pale earth-brown with whitish margins to the feathers 
along the sides of the crown; a white band across the hind-neck; back, rump, upper 
tail-coverts, scapulars, wings and tail earth-brown; imier webs of flight-quiUs 
margined with buffj'-white ; tail-feathers dark brown, slightly paler on the margins ; 
cheeks blackish, paler on the liinder margins; chin dusky-grey with hair-like tips 
to the feathers; thi’oat and fore-neck sUvery-white with dark shaft-lines to the 
feathers ; breast, abdomen, sides of body, thighs, and under tail-coverts pale drab- 
grey ; axillaries and under wing-coverts similar, tinged with buff; under-surface 
of flight-quills hair-brown with white shafts ; lower aspect of tail similar but paler. 
Eyes reddish-brown, feet leaden-blue, tarsi leaden-brown, bill black, naked skin 
of head black, cheeks leaden-blue. Total length 310 mm. ; culmen from knob 32, 
wing 145, tail 121, tarsus 37. Figured. Collected on Melville Island, Northern 
Territory, on the 14th of June, 1912, and is the type of P. b. gordoni. 
Adult ferrwle similar to the adult male. 
Birds from Melville Island have a much smaller knob on the top of the culmen. 
The feathers of the top of the head lack the silvery appearance of these parts in 
birds from Cape York. Their upper-surface is distinctly browner. 
Nesi, eggs and breeding-months not described. 
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