The figures are those of a male, a female, and a young bird of the natural size, on one of the Banksias of Van Diemen’s Land.
GLYCIPHILA ALBIFRONS: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp.
GLYCIPHILA ALBIFRONS, Gould.
White-fronted Honey-eater.
Glyciphila albifrons, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 160.
Goȍl-be-g̏ool-burn, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia.
Black-throated Honey-sucker, Colonists of Swan River.
I first observed this fine new species of Glyciphila in the great Murray scrub of South Australia, where I succeeded in killing several specimens of both sexes; it is also an inhabitant of the York and other inland districts of Western Australia, and Captain Sturt obtained an example during one of his overland journeys from Sydney to Adelaide: we may consequently infer that, like many others, it is a species peculiar to the interior, where it probably supplies the place of the Fulvous-fronted Honey-eater, so abundantly dispersed along the line of coast.
In its disposition the present bird is remarkably shy, a trait common, it would seem, to all the members of the genus. All those I observed were busily engaged in collecting their insect and saccharine food from the flowers of a species of dwarf Eucalyptus, during which their actions much resembled those of the restricted genus Meliphaga; but they appeared if possible to hang and cling beneath the branches with even greater facility.
Its flight much resembles that of its near ally, being short, performed in sudden starts, and all times unsteady.