The Yellow-eared Honey-eater is very common in New South Wales, where it
inhabits the thick brushes near the sea, breeding and dwelling therein
all the year round. I found it especially abundant in all parts of the
river Hunter, as well as in the cedar brushes of the Liverpool and other
ranges of hills. No examples of this bird came under my notice in South
Australia, and I do not believe that it extends so far to the westward;
neither does it occur at Port Essington, in which district a different
character of country and of vegetation prevails. Mr. Bynoe procured a
single specimen on the north coast, but did not note the precise
locality. In its habits and disposition it assimilates very closely to
the _Ptilotis flavigula_ of Van Diemen’s Land. It prefers low shrubby
trees to those of a larger growth, frequently descending to the ground
among the underwood in search of insects. No one species of the genus is
more bold and fearless of man; I have often been permitted to approach
within a few yards of it while threading the dense brushes without
causing it the least alarm. Like the rest of its genus, this species
feeds on insects, the pollen of flowers, and occasionally fruits and
berries. The flowering creeper upon which the bird is figured (together
with many similar plants), growing in the utmost luxuriance on the sides
of rivers, and attracting a corresponding amount of insect life, is
often visited by the _Ptilotis chrysotis_, which may be observed busily
engaged in search of its prey, heedless of the proximity of a human
intruder in its sequestered haunts. It is not celebrated for the
richness or liquidity of its notes or for the volubility of its song,
but its presence, when not visible among the foliage, is always to be
detected by its loud ringing whistling note, which is continually poured
forth during the months of spring and summer.
The sexes are alike in colour, but the female presents the same
disparity of size that is observable between the sexes of the other
species of the genus; the young at an early age assume the plumage of
the adults, but the colour is not so rich or decided.
I found a nest of this species in a gully under the Liverpool range; it
was placed in the thickest part of one of the creeping plants which
overhung a small pool of water; like that of the rest of the genus, it
was cup-shaped in form, suspended by the brim, and very neatly made of
sticks and lined with very fine twigs; the eggs are two in number, of a
pearly white spotted with purplish brown, the spots forming a zone at
the large end; they are eleven and a half lines long by eight lines
broad.
Upper surface olive-green; under surface the same colour but paler;
behind the ears an oval spot of fine yellow; region of the eyes
blackish; below the eye a narrow stripe of yellow; bill black at the
tip, yellow at the base; legs purplish flesh-colour; irides dark
lead-colour; gape white.
The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size.
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