MELIPHAGA SERICEA, Gould.

White-cheeked Honey-eater.

New Holland Creeper, female, White’s Voy., pl. in p. 297.

L Heorotaire noir, Vieill. Ois. dor., tom. i. p. 106. pl. 71.

Meliphaga sericea, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. p. 144; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.
Meliphaga sericeola, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 152, female.

 

Tue White-cheeked Honey-eater is an inhabitant of New South Wales, and certainly proceeds as far to the
eastward as Moreton Bay; but the birds mhabiting the country to the northward of this are so entirely
unknown, that it is impossible to say how far its range may extend in that direction. It has not yet been
discovered in Van Diemen’s Land or South Australia. It differs materially in its habits and disposition from
the Meliphaga Nove-Hollandie, being less exclusively confined to the brushes, and affecting localities of a
more open character. I observed it to be tolerably abundant in the Illawarra district, particularly among
the shrubs surrounding the open glades of the luxuriant brushes ; it is also common at Botany Bay, and on
most parts of the sea-coast between that place and the river Clarence ; but I never met with it during any
of my excursions into the interior of the country.

I found it, unlike its near ally, a remarkably shy species; so much so, that I frequently had much diffi-
culty in getting within gun-shot of it. When perched on the trees it is a most showy bird, its white
cheek-feathers and contrasted tints of colouring rendering it very conspicuous.

I did not succeed in finding its nest, a circumstance I much regret; for although it is probable that in
the colour of its eggs and its mode of nidification it generally resembles the JZ. Nove-Hollandia, there will
doubtless be found as great a specific difference in these respects as is to be observed in the markings of
their plumage.

The sexes are alike in colour, but the female is somewhat the smaller. The white cheeks and the
absence of white tips to the tail-feathers will at all times distinguish it from the JZ. Nove-Hollandie.

Crown of the head, throat, and space round the eye black ; an obscure band of white crosses the fore-
head and passes over each eye; a beautiful plume of hair-like white feathers spreads over the cheeks and
ear-coverts ; back dusky brown, striped longitudinally with black ; under surface white, each feather having
a central longitudinal mark of black ; wings dark brown, the outer edge of all the primaries and secondaries
wax-yellow; tail dark brown, the external edges margined with yellow; irides dark brown; feet and bill
black.

The figures represent two males of the natural size, on a plant growing in the district of Illawarra, called

Christmas by the settlers.

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