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PTILOTIS FILIGERA, Gowda.

Streaked Honey-eater.

Ptilotis filigera, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., December 10, 1850.

 

AusTratta is evidently the head-quarters of this genus of birds, inasmuch as I have already figured no less
than fifteen species; and here we have another quite distinct from either of them, but which is, perhaps,
more nearly allied to P. wnicolor than to any other.

The P. filigera is one of the novelties which rewarded the researches of Mr. James Wilcox, who obtained
two examples among some mangroves at Cape York, where he observed it in company with another species
of the same genus. These specimens are now in the possession of the Zoological Society of London,
to whom they were presented by the late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N. Although on the whole a dull-
coloured species, it is rendered interestingly different from all its congeners by the thread-like streak
beneath the ear-coverts, and by the small strize which decorate the back of the neck and the upper part
of the mantle.

Upper surface, wings and tail rich olive-brown, with numerous small marks of greyish white on the apical
portion of the nuchal feathers ; the wing-coverts broadly and the remainder of the feathers narrowly edged
with brownish buff; from the gape beneath the eye a streak of white ; ear-coverts blackish grey; from the
centre of the lower angle of the ear-coverts a very narrow streak of silky yellow, which proceeding back-
wards joins the line of white from beneath the eye; throat brownish grey ; under surface sandy buff, the
feathers of the breast and the middle of the abdomen with lighter centres ; bill olive-black ; naked space
beneath the eye yellow ; legs and feet slate-colour.

The young are destitute of the white marks on the nape, and have the under surface more rufous and
without the lighter centres.

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