PTILOTIS FLAVOSTRIATA, Gowa.

Yellow-streaked Honey-eater.

Ptilopis flavostriata, Gould, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 316.

 

Ir Australia is peculiar for its Lyre-birds and for its mound-building Megapodes and Brush-Turkeys, it certainly
presents a no less marked feature in the extraordinary development of the family of Meliphagidee (or Hones:
eaters) within its limits. Nor can we suppose that the number of species known to us fom dhai coutiinent
is yet exhausted, seeing that not a year passes without our receiving some notable addition to our list of
the Australian species of this group of birds. The one which I have now the pleasure to introduce to my
readers is from the neighbourhood of Rockingham Bay, in Queensland, and was sent to me for examination
by Mr. Waller of Brisbane, to whom it appeared undescribed. Of this there is no doubt; and I have
accordingly described the species under the name of /laro-striata, on account of the yellow chest-streaks
which are such a conspicuous feature in the bird’s appearance.

The following is my original description of the species :—

Head and hind neck dusky blackish, with a distinct shade of olivaceous on the crown, leaving a pare black
patch on each side of the occiput; hind neck distinctly marked with triangular spots of dull white; mantle
straw-yellow, the bases to the feathers dusky brown; scapulars brown, with large triangular whitish spots ;
lower back and rump brown, with dull olive margins to the feathers ; upper tail-coverts and tail brown, paler
at tip, the feathers narrowly margined with olive; wing-coverts brown, with large triangular whitish spots
as on the scapulars, the greater series dark brown, tipped with whitish and margined with whity brown ;
quills dark brown, externally edged with olive and slightly tipped with whitish ; region of the eye bare and
yellow; the few feathers on the ear-coverts hoary ; cheeks dull olivaceous buff, running into a distinct tuft
of bright yellow; throat greyish white, washed with olive on the lower part; chest olivaceous, distinctly
streaked with shaft-lines of bright yellow, the breast paler, the feathers being brown with broad triangular
longitudinal spots of white; flanks and under tail-coverts light brown, washed with olive ; wncler wing-
coverts yellowish buff; the lower surface of the wings and tail ashy brown, with broad rufous-buff margins
to the inner webs. Total length 73 inches, bill 14, wing 33, tail 3, tarsus +3.

The figures in the Plate are of the size of life.