407. Pezoporus formosus Vol. V. Pl. 46. Genus LATHAMUS, _Less._ Of this form only a single species is known to exist in Australia, and that species had been assigned to a different genus by almost every recent writer on ornithology, Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield placing it in their genus _Nanodes_, Wagler in his genus _Euphema_, &c.; subsequently M. Lesson made it the type of his genus _Lathamus_, giving it at the same time the specific appellation of _rubrifrons_, which must of course give place to that of _discolor_, long before applied to it by Latham. Having had ample opportunities of observing this bird in a state of nature, I concur in the propriety of M. Lesson’s views in separating it into a distinct genus; at the same time I must remark that in its habits, nidification, food and whole economy, it is most closely allied to the _Trichoglossi_ or honey-eating Parrakeets, and in no degree related to the _Euphemæ_. 408. Lathamus discolor Vol. V. Pl. 47. Genus TRICHOGLOSSUS, _Vig. & Horsf._ The arboreal group of _Trichoglossi_ or honey-eating Lorikeets, if not so numerous in species as the grass-feeding Parrakeets, are individually much more abundant and are more universally dispersed, being found in every part of the country yet visited; several species inhabit New South Wales: only one has yet been found in Western Australia. Other members of the genus are found in New Guinea and the Moluccas, but Australia is the great nursery for the birds of this form. In their structure, habits and mode of nidification, and in their economy, no two groups of the same family can be more widely different than the _Trichoglossi_ and the _Platycerci_; the pencilled tongue, diminutive stomach, thick skin, tough flesh, and fœtid odour of the former presenting a decided contrast to the simple tongue, capacious crop and stomach, thin skin, delicate flesh and freedom from odour of the latter; besides which the _Trichoglossi_ possess a strong _os furcatorium_, which organ is wanting in the _Platycerci_; hence while the _Trichoglossi_ are powerful, swift and arrow-like in their flight, the _Platycerci_ are feeble, pass through the air in a succession of undulations near the ground, and never fly to any great distance. The mode in which the two groups approach and alight upon and quit the trees is also remarkably different; the _Trichoglossi_ dashing among and alighting upon the branches simultaneously, and with the utmost rapidity, and quitting them in like manner, leaving the deafening sound of their thousand voices echoing through the woods; while the _Platycerci_ rise to the branches after their undulating flight and leave them again in the like quiet manner, no sound being heard but their inward piping note. The eggs of the _Trichoglossi_ are from two to four in number.