The nest of this species, which is generally placed in a low bush, differs very considerably from those of all the other Honey-eaters with which I am acquainted, particularly in the character of the material forming the lining; it is the largest and warmest of the whole, and is usually formed of ribbons of stringy bark, mixed with grass and the cocoons of spiders; towards the cavity it is more neatly built, and is lined internally with opossum or kangaroo fur; in some instances the hair-like material at the base of the large leafstalks of the tree-fern is employed for the lining, and in others there is merely a flooring of wiry grasses and fine twigs. The eggs, which are either two or three in number, are of the most delicate fleshy buff, rather strongly but thinly spotted with small, roundish, prominent dots of chestnut-red, intermingled with which are a few indistinct dots of purplish grey; their average length is eleven lines, and breadth eight lines. The only external difference in the sexes is the smaller size of the female, which is nearly a third less than that of the male. Lores and cheeks black; crown of the head, ear-coverts, breast and under surface dark grey, with silvery reflexions; a few of the ear-coverts tipped with yellow; chin and upper part of the throat rich gamboge-yellow; all the upper surface, wings and tail rich yellowish olive, brightest on the margins of the quill- and tail-feathers; inner webs of the primaries and secondaries dark brown; under surface of the shoulder and wing gamboge-yellow; abdomen and flanks washed with olive; bill black; interior of the bill, throat and tongue rich orange; irides wood-brown; legs and feet brownish lead-colour. The young birds assume the adult colouring from the time they leave the nest. The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size. [Illustration: PTILOTIS LEUCOTIS. _J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._ ] PTILOTIS LEUCOTIS. White-eared Honey-eater. _Turdus leucotis_, Lath. Ind. Orn., 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. Ill. Orn., vol. i. pl. xxxv. fig. 2.—Temm. Man., part i. p. lxxxvii.—Temm. Pl. Col. 435.—Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.