I regret to say that nothing more than is stated above is present at known respecting it.
The male has the head, throat, sides of the chest, back, wings, inner webs of the upper tail-coverts, two centre and the tips of the remaining tail-feathers black; the wing-coverts, the base and the margins of both webs of the secondaries, the rump, outer webs of the upper tail-coverts, the under surface and the lateral tail-feathers for three-fourths of their length pure white; irides reddish brown; bill bluish grey, becoming black on the culmen near the tip; naked skin beneath the eye ash-grey; legs and feet greenish grey.
The female is light brown, each feather being darkest in the centre; wings and tail dark brown, the former margined with huffy white; under surface buffy white, with a small streak of black near the tip of each feather.
The figures represent a male and a female of the natural size.
ENTOMOPHILA PICTA: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp.
ENTOMOPHILA PICTA, Gould.
Painted Honey-eater.
Entomophila picta, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 154.
This beautiful little Honey-eater is strictly peculiar to the interior of New South Wales, where it inhabits the myalls (Acacia pendula), and other trees bordering the extensive plains of that part of Australia. On a comparison of skins of this species with those of the other Meliphagidæ prior to my visit to the country, I had been led to suspect that the actions and economy of the Painted Honey-eater would be found to differ materially from those of the other members of its family, and such proved to be the case, for it is much more active among the branches, captures insects on the wing, and darts forth and returns to the same spot much after the manner of the Flycatchers. Its song is a loud but not very harmonious strain, which is frequently uttered when on the wing. I have generally met with it in pairs, flying and chasing each other from top to top of the most lofty trees. During flight they repeatedly spread their tails, when the white portion of the feathers shows very conspicuously; the yellow colouring of the wing also contributes to the beauty of their appearance, which somewhat resembles that of the Goldfinch. I found the nest of this bird with two nearly fledged young on the fifth of September; the nest was the frailest structure possible, round, of small size, most ingeniously suspended by the rim to the thick drooping leaves of the Acacia pendula, and entirely composed of very fine fibrous roots. The female is much less brilliant than the male, but does not differ in the distribution of the markings.
I have never seen this bird from any other part of Australia than that above-mentioned, nor in any other collection than my own.