This beautiful little Honey-eater is strictly peculiar to the interior
of New South Wales, where it inhabits the myalls (_Acacia pendula_), and
other trees bordering the extensive plains of that part of Australia. On
a comparison of skins of this species with those of the other
_Meliphagidæ_ prior to my visit to the country, I had been led to
suspect that the actions and economy of the Painted Honey-eater would be
found to differ materially from those of the other members of its
family, and such proved to be the case, for it is much more active among
the branches, captures insects on the wing, and darts forth and returns
to the same spot much after the manner of the Flycatchers. Its song is a
loud but not very harmonious strain, which is frequently uttered when on
the wing. I have generally met with it in pairs, flying and chasing each
other from top to top of the most lofty trees. During flight they
repeatedly spread their tails, when the white portion of the feathers
shows very conspicuously; the yellow colouring of the wing also
contributes to the beauty of their appearance, which somewhat resembles
that of the Goldfinch. I found the nest of this bird with two nearly
fledged young on the fifth of September; the nest was the frailest
structure possible, round, of small size, most ingeniously suspended by
the rim to the thick drooping leaves of the _Acacia pendula_, and
entirely composed of very fine fibrous roots. The female is much less
brilliant than the male, but does not differ in the distribution of the
markings.
I have never seen this bird from any other part of Australia than that
above-mentioned, nor in any other collection than my own.
Head, cheeks, and all the upper surface black, the posterior edges of
the ear-coverts tipped with white; wings black, the outer edges of the
primaries and secondaries rich yellow at their base, forming a
conspicuous broad mark on the wing; tail black, margined externally with
rich yellow, each feather except the two centre ones more or less
largely tipped on the internal web with white; throat and all the under
surface white, the flanks having a few longitudinal faint spots of
brown; bill soft and pulpy, and of a deep pink red; irides hazel;
eyelash darker hazel; feet purplish lead-colour.
The figures represent the two sexes and the nest of the natural size.
[Illustration:
ENTOMOPHILA ALBOGULARIS: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
ENTOMOPHILA ALBOGULARIS, _Gould_.
White-throated Honey-eater.
_Entomophila? albogularis_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part X. p.
137.
_Me-lȕd-be-re_, Aborigines of Port Essington.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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