HONEYEATER by J
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THE Official Journal of the South Australian Ornithological Association. (First appeared 1914.) President: PROFESSOR J. B. CLELAND. Vice-President: LIEUT.-CC:lL. A. H. LENDON. Hen, Secretary: MI1. S. E. TERRILL, Address: 167 Napier Terrace, Westbourne Park, Adelaide. , . Editorial Committee: F. M. ANGEL, J. B. CLELAND, A. G. EDQUIST. Vol. XVII1 MARCH. 1945 Part 5 PLUMULA .- YELLOW..FRONTED HONEYEATER By J. NEIL McGILP. Since John Gilbert first discovered the from Rockhampton, and seven from Card Yellow-fronted Honeyeater resorting to the well. in the North. The other skins are tallest trees in the White Gum forests in the without any data and this applies also to York District, some sixty miles from the Swan the one set of three eggs in the Museum. River, Western Australia, and the specimens 'In a letter received from Major, Whittell, collected by him were described by' Gould dated 18/4/<1<1, he writes, "I had one set before the Zoological Society of London in in my collection which I gave to Mr. Orton. .1840, this' bird appears to have escaped the The data were as follows: Collected by H. close attention 'of .students of oology. Most L.' Olive on October 29, 1917, at Mt. Cook, of the available information about the species Cooktown, N. Queensland. Nest of bark, refers to 'it having been noted in. certain lined with cotton and feathers." localities, there being few notes about the habits or' the nidification of this somewhat Mr. H. Greensill Barnard, of Rockhanip retiring and exclusive honeyeater. ton, Queensland" in correspondence, gives With a desire to obtain all the informa some interesting notes anent the Yellow tion possible, the writer has searched through fronted Honeyeater. He says. he had not found the bird over a wide range. In Cen bird notes from many parts of Australia and tral Queensland the bird ranges from 40 has conferred with other ornithologists and Australian Museums. .Much material has to 50 miles inland from the coast-s-and he been collected, and it' is -intended to deal had never seen it nearer the sea-s-to the . with the more interesting notes about the Dividing Rauge roughly 250 to 300 miles inland. It has not been identified by hin, Yellow-fronted Honeyeater, It is desired . to offer an apology in advance lest, through on the western fall of the Range'. He found all books, etc., dealing with Australian avi the birds in .111 the scrubby gullies of the fauna not being available, some reference to Range and in the scrubs of the ,.J\!.fcKeniie a recorder of notes on the bird under review and Dawson Rivers. It nests freely in the is omitted. bracken fern along the' gullies. In the brigalow scrubs of the Dawson Iliver, it was In the Official Check List of the Birds of very partial to the honey of the Mistletoe Australia, the habitat of the, Yellow-fronted (Loranthus). He found a nest in a Mistle Honeyeater is set down -as-South Australia, toe. Mr. Barnard collected extensivelv for Interior of Australia, North-Western Aus the late H. L. White in the Cardwell District tralia and Eastern Central Queensland. in 1916 and 1925, but did not see the bird In order to' ascertain -the distribution of there, and suggests that the skins in the the. species in Queensland, an enquiry was Queensland Museilmwould probably have dispatched to Mr. H. A. Longman, Director been 'collected from. the Tableland country of the Museum, and he kindly supplied the some distance west of Cardwell. .' As the· interesting . information that it: is a -well two localities are so dissimilar the skins known bird in his'State.· There are some should riot be labelled Cardwell. His ex two dozen skins in the cullection-e-five of perience of the bird is that it .prefers the them came from the' Darling Downs, eight drier scrubs of' the inland but not the far from Chinchilla in Southern Queensland,'two iniand. lYk Barnard. stated that the scrubs March, 1945 THE S.A. ORNITHOLOGIST 47 of Central Queensland are mostly brigalow The skin from Bourke, N.S.W., is intel" with a good variety of undergrowth. The esting in that it is the most inland and range country carries mostly Eucalyptus, with westerly specimen secured in that Slate and scrubby gullies, no brigalow. tends to form the link between the coastal birds of Eastern N.S.VI. and Queensland Though New South Wales is not given U:o the habitat, the Director of the Australian and those in the dry Inland of Australia. Museum, Sydney, courteously intimated that Mr. Mack, however, is not quite satisfied there are seventeen skins in the collecnon. that this skin is correctly labelled. Of these three skins (Grant Colln.] wert The Yellow-fronted Honeyeater ranges well obtained at Narramine in 1903. Narrarmne over South Australia; the. most easterly is on the Central ~restern Slopes and some records in this State were made by Professor B. Cleland, who took a specimen 75 two hundred miles inland from Newcastle. J. One specimen carne from Mt.· Gillen, near miles N. of Renmark in January, 1921 XXXV, p. 263), and by the late F. Alice Springs, 'Central Australia, in 1936. (Emu, W. Andrews, who in 1883 (North's Nests & The other thirteen skins were collected in Eggs, 2, p. 137) collected specimens at South Australia; two of them labelled Moolah, Aug. 1883, have been credited to Overland Corner, also on the River Murray. - South Australia by the writer who, unable E. F. Boehm (S.A.o., IX, p. 266) identi fied the birds N.E. 'of Sutherlands on the to locate a place of this name, considers that Morgan-Adelaide Railway in 1928, and on it may be a place name near Overland 18/10/1933 sent specimens to the S.A. Corner, River Murray, S.A., where Andrews Museum (S.A.a., XV, p. 26). He stated shot birds in 1883. There are two sets, that they inhabit dense low mallee shoots· each of two eggs, in the Museum. One and they appeared stationary. The calls, set was labelled Flinder5 Range, S.A., date he thought, resembled those of the Brown prior to 1906. This \1I:J.y be the set taken headed Honeyeater.- by Dr. Chenery in 1904-. The second set On Balah, north of Morgan, P. T. Sand was taken at Mt. Fitton, Moolawatana, Elin land noted the birds, not plentiful. He del'S Range, S.A., by the writer on 17/8/1920 took two sets of eggs in Aug. 1907 and 1908 -the set forms part of the .late Dr. Mac from the same flat. The nests were gillivray's collection, presented on his death built near the top of a dogwood bush and to the Australian Museum, Sydney. each .was found by the bird Hushing when The Yellow-fronted Honeyeater does not he was about 4 or 5 feet away. He writes 'occur in Tasmania. The Museum ill Hobart that the only note he heara' was a single has one skin and that was presented by the rather deep one. He describes the locality S.A. Museum in August, 1889-probably the as a peculiar depression near a patch of bird was taken in South Australia. limestone and sandalwood country, which is well grassed in a good season. Beyond F. E. Howe's reference to the presence of the birds at Tutye, Victorian 1. T. Gray located the species at Orroroo Mallee, in September, 1921 (Emu, XXVII, (S.A.a., XI, p. 103) and in Emu, XLII, p. 265), there are no records from Victoria. p. 143, stated that he had seen them in a Mr. Geo. Mack, Ornithologist at the National small area of hills and gullies, clad with Museum, Melbourne, kindly advised that fairly large mallee, just south of the tOWII. there are 33 skins of the species in the He had seen them in the months of April H. L. White and General Collections. One to November, 1931 to 1935 inclusive. He skin was taken near Bourke, N.S.'W., eleven sent a skin for identification to the S:A. skins from Gawler Ranges, Ooldea, Wanta Museum. pella Swamp, Tarcoola, and Pt. Gerrnein in To the north-east of Orroroo, at Nackara South Australia, five skins from Gilbert on the Broken Hill Railway Line, the late Spring in Central Australia, and sixteen skins Edwin Ashby, that indefatigable field-worker, collected at Kalgoorlie, Derby, West Kim collected specimens on May 16, 1900 berley, East Murchison and Napier, Broome (North's Nests & Eggs). The birds literally Bay, in Western Australia. There are two swarmed in the.gums, which were Howering. sets of eggs, one egg and two eggs, in the He noticed some young birds which had only collection, but Mr. Mack does not regard left the nest a few weeks earlier. Again these as authentic eggs of the Yellow-fronted in September, 1917 (Emu, XVI, p. 233), he Honeyeater albeit they are labelled as such. found the birds at Nackara, and during the 48 THE S.A. ORNITHOLOGIST March, 1945 same period observed. them quite numerous 1912 (Emu, XIII, p. 32), and wrote that near the western entrance to the Port Ger he saw them on many occasions and that mein Gorge, but as he travelled eastward .they were very silent and of retiring habits. through the Gorge and attained a higher They seemed sociable, being seen in parties altitude this species was replaced ,by the of 8 to 10. They kept to the Ranges and White-plumed Honeyeater. _ were not seen in the mallee away from the Immediately west of the Port Germein hills.