_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
ANTHOCHÆRA CARUNCULATA.
Wattled Honey-eater.
_Merops carunculatus_, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. i. p. 276.
_Corvus paradoxus_, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. 26.
—— _carunculatus_, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. vii. p. 378.
_Pie à pendeloques_, Daud. Orn., tom. ii. p. 246. pl. 16.
_Wattled Crow_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 119.
_Wattled Bee-eater_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 150.—Phil.
Bot. Bay, pl. in p. 164.—White’s Journ., pl. in p.
144.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 173.—Lath. Gen. Hist.,
vol. iv. p. 158.
_Anthochæra Lewinii_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
322, note.—Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.—Swains.
Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 326.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen.
of Birds, 2nd edit., p. 20.
_Djung-gung_, Aborigines of Western Australia.
_Wattle Bird_ of the Colonists.
This, the true _Merops carunculatus_ of the older writers, enjoys an
unusually wide range of habitat, extending as it does over the whole of
the southern portion of the continent, being equally as abundant in
Southern and Western Australia as in New South Wales; how far it may
extend to the northward has not yet been ascertained; it does not
inhabit Van Diemen’s Land. I observed it to be very numerous in all the
high gum-trees around Adelaide, in most parts of the interior, and in
all the apple-tree flats and forests of _Eucalypti_ of New South Wales.
Mr. Gilbert’s notes inform me that he met with it in all parts of
Western Australia, but that it was most abundant among the Banksias in
the York district. It is a showy active bird, constantly engaged in
flying from tree to tree and searching among the flowers for its food,
which consists of honey, insects, and occasionally berries. In
disposition it is generally shy and wary, but at times is confident and
bold: it is usually seen in pairs, and the males are very pugnacious.
Its habits and manners, in fact, closely resemble those of the _A.
inauris_, and like that bird, it utters with distended throat a harsh
disagreeable note.
Its flight is slow and uneven, and rarely extends to any great distance.
It breeds in September and October. The nests observed by myself in the
Upper Hunter district were placed on the horizontal branches of the
_Angophoræ_, and were of a large rounded form, composed of small sticks
and lined with fine grasses; those found by Mr. Gilbert in Western
Australia were formed of dried sticks, without any kind of lining, and
were placed in the open bushes. The eggs are two or three in number, one
inch and three lines long by ten lines and a half broad; their ground
colour is reddish buff, very thickly dotted with distinct markings of
deep chestnut and umber and reddish brown, interspersed with a number of
indistinct marks of blackish grey, which appear as if beneath the
surface of the shell: eggs taken in New South Wales are somewhat larger
than those from Western Australia, and have markings of a blotched
rather than of a dotted form, and principally at the larger end.
The sexes are only distinguishable by the smaller size of the female.
Crown of the head, a line running from the base of the bill beneath the
eye and the ear-coverts blackish brown; space under the eye silvery
white, bounded behind by an oblong naked flesh-coloured spot, below
which is a short pendulous wattle of a pinky blood-red colour; back of
the neck and all the upper surface greyish brown, each feather having a
stripe of white down the centre; upper tail-coverts greyish brown,
broadly margined with grey; primaries and secondaries deep blackish
brown, the former slightly and the latter broadly edged with grey; all
the primaries tipped with white; two middle tail-feathers greyish brown,
the remainder deep blackish brown, the whole largely tipped with white;
throat, breast and flanks grey, the centre of each feather being
lighter; middle of the abdomen yellow; irides bright hazel-red; legs
brownish flesh-colour; inside of the mouth yellow.
The figure is of the natural size.
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