PTILOTIS LEUCOTIS.
White-eared Honey-eater.
Turdus leucotis, Lath. Ind. Ora., p. xliv. No. 26.
White-eared Honey-eater, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 186. No. 41.
White-eared Thrush, Lath. Gen. Syn. Suppl., vol. ii. p. 373.
Meliphaga leucotis, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 314.—Jard. and Selb. 111. Orn., vol. i. pi. xxxv.
fig. 2.—'Temrn. Man., part i. p. lxxxvii.—Temm. PI. Col. 435.—Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.
T h e White-eared Honey-eater enjoys a very wide range o f habitat; I found it in abundance in the belts of
the Murray and other parts of South Australia, and in the brushes near the coast as well as in the open
forests o f Eucalypti in New South Wales ; it is very common in the Bargo brush on the road to Argyle,
and Mr. Gilbert mentions that he shot a specimen near York in the interior o f Western Australia, but it is
there so rare that he believed the individual he procured was the only one that had been seen. It is as
much an inhabitant of the mountainous as of the lowland parts of the country, and is always engaged in
creeping and clinging about among the leafy branches of the Eucalypti, particularly those of a low or stunted
growth, such as the thick forests of sapling and dwarf gum-trees growing on Kangaroo Island, one among
the other localities in which it abounds.
Its note is loud, and very much resembles that o f the Ptilotis penicillata. The stomach is small and membranous,
and the food consists of insects of various kinds.
I did not succeed in discovering the nest.
The plumage of the upper surface harmonizes beautifully with the tint o f the green leaves, among which
it is always disporting.
The sexes are alike in their markings, but they differ considerably in size, the male being much less
than her mate.
Upper surface and abdomen yellowish olive; crown of the head grey, streaked longitudinally with black ;
throat and chest black; ear-feathers pure silvery white; tips of the tail-feathers yellowish white; bill
black ; irides greenish grey, with a narrow ring of pale wood-brown ; legs and feet leaden greenish grey.
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size.