MELITHREPTUS ALBO GULARI S , Gould.
White-throated Honey-eater.
Melithreptus albogularis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., November 1847.
T h is species, which inhabits the northern and eastern parts of Australia, is very abundant on the Cobourg
Peninsula, and I have received specimens from the neighbourhood of Moreton Bay. . The total absence of
any black mark beneath the lower mandible and the pure whiteness of the throat serve to distinguish it
from every other known species; the colouring of the back, which inclines to rich wax-yellow, is also a
character peculiar to it. It is very numerous around the settlement at Port Essington, where it occurs
in families of from ten to fifteen in number; it is o f a very pugnacious disposition, often fighting with
other birds much larger than itself; while among the leafy branches of the Eucalypti, which are its favourite
trees, it frequently pours forth a loud ringing whistling note, a correct idea of which is not easily conveyed.
Like its near ally the sexes present no other external difference than the smaller size o f the female; and the
young at the same age present a similar style of colouring to that observable in the M . lunulatus and
M. chloropsis, the head and sides o f the neck being brown instead of black, and the naked skin above the
eye scarcely perceptible.
The food consists entirely of insects and the pollen of flowers, in searching for which it displays a great
variety o f positions, sometimes threading the leaves on the smaller branches, and at others clinging to the
very extremities of the bunches of flowers.
The nest, which is always suspended to a drooping branch, and which swings about with every breath of
wind, is formed o f dried narrow strips of the soft bark o f the Melaleuca. 'Hie eggs, which are generally
two in number, are o f a light salmon-colour, blotched and freckled with reddish brown, and are about nine
lines long by six lines broad.
Upper surface greenish wax-yellow; head black; crescent-shaped mark at the occiput, chin and all the
under surface white; wings and tail brown margined with greenish wax-yellow; irides dull r ed ; bill
brownish black; legs and feet greenish grey, with a tinge of blue on the front o f the tarsi.
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.