The nest is always placed on a low shrub within a foot or two of the ground; it is of a round, open form, and is outwardly constructed of the inner rind of the stringy bark gum-tree, generally lined with fine grasses.
Unlike every other member of the restricted genus Meliphaga that I have had opportunities of observing, the sexes are distinguished by a different style of colouring, a circumstance which led me to characterize the female as a distinct species under the name of Meliphaga inornata, an error which my visit to the country enables me now to rectify.
The male has a black stripe passing from the base of the bill through the eye, and a lunar-shaped mark down each side the breast, nearly meeting in the centre, black; a narrow stripe above the eye and one behind the lunar marks on the breast white; all the upper surface dusky black; wings blackish brown, the primaries and secondaries margined externally, particularly at their base, with golden yellow; tail-feathers brownish black, fringed with golden yellow at the base, the two lateral feathers having a long oval spot of white on their inner webs at the tip; throat and chest white, with a streak of brown down the middle of each feather; centre of the abdomen white; flanks and under tail-coverts sooty grey; irides red; bill and feet black.
The female is of a nearly uniform dusky brown above and beneath; is destitute of the white stripe over the eye and the white spots on the lateral tail-feathers; has only a faint tinge of the golden yellow on the wings and tail; the black and white marks on the throat not very apparent; the throat pale brownish grey instead of white, and the irides brown.
The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size on the Epacris impressa.
GLYCIPHILA FULVIFRONS: Swains.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp.
GLYCIPHILA FULVIFRONS, Swains.
Fulvous-fronted Honey-eater.
Meliphaga fulvifrons, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 317.—Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pl. 22.
Glyciphila fulvifrons, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 326.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 319.