ENTOMYZA CYANOTIS,Swains.Blue-faced Entomyza.
Cracula cyanotis, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxix.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. vii. p. 474.
Blue-cheeked Honey-sucker,Meliphaga cyanops, Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pl. 4.
Graculine Honey-eater, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 166.
Blue-eared Grakle, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 130.
Turdus cyaneus, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xlii.
Blue-cheeked Thrush, Ib. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 184.—Gen. Hist., vol. v. p. 124.
Tropidorhynchus cyanotis, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 325.
Entomyza cyanotis, Swains. Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 328.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, p. 16.
L’Heorotaire graculé, Vieill. Ois. Dor., tom. ii. p. 125. pl. 87, young.
Graculine Creeper, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 242, young.
Graculine Honey-eater, var. A., Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 166, young.
Pale-cheeked Honey-eater, Ib., p. 167, young.
Merops cyanops, Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp., p. xxxiv, young.
Blue-cheeked Bee-eater, Ib. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 154, young.—Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. viii. p. 171, young.
Blue-cheeked Honey-eater, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. iv. p. 167, young.
——, var. A. and B., Ib., p. 168, young.
White-crowned Honey-eater, Ib., p. 169, young.
Batikin, Aborigines of the coast of New South Wales.
Blue-eyeof the Colonists.
This attractive and beautiful Honey-eater, one of the finest of theMeliphagidæ, is strictly indigenous to New South Wales, where it is abundant and very generally dispersed: I observed it in nearly every part of the colony I visited, both in winter and summer. I also shot a single specimen on the Namoi, but as this was almost the only one I saw beyond the mountain ranges, I believe its most natural habitat to be between the great dividing chain of mountains and the sea. In all probability it may be found far to the northward on the eastern coast, but it has not yet been observed in South Australia, neither is it an inhabitant of Van Diemen’s Land.
In habits and actions the Blue-faced Honey-eater bears a striking resemblance to the members of the generaPtilotisandHæmatops; like them, it is found almost exclusively on theEucalypti, searching among the blossoms and smaller leafy branches for its food, which is of a mixed character, consisting partly of insects and partly of honey, and probably, judging from others of its family, berries and fruits, but this latter supposition I was not able to verify. Mr. Caley states, that he once saw “several of them frequenting a tree, where they were very busy in obtaining something that appeared to have exuded from a wounded part. I do not know what the substance could be, otherwise than a kind of gum of a bitter and astringent taste.” As I have never detected them in feeding on this or any similar substance, I should rather suppose they were in search of the insects that might have been attracted by this exudation.
I have frequently seen eight or ten of these bold and spirited birds, with numerous other small Honey-eaters and Parrakeets, on a single tree, displaying the most elegant and easy movements, clinging and hanging in every variety of position, frequently at the extreme ends of the small, thickly-flowered branches, bending them down with their weight; they may, however, be easily distinguished from the other birds with which they are in company by their superior size, the brilliancy of their blue face, and the contrasted colours of their plumage; they are rendered equally conspicuous by the pugnacity with which they chase and drive about the other species resorting to the same tree.
It frequently utters a rather loud and monotonous cry, not worthy the name of a song.
I observed a most curious fact respecting the nidification of this bird: in every instance that I found its eggs, they were deposited on the deserted, dome-shaped, large nest of thePomatorhinus, so numerous in the Apple-tree Flats in the district of the Upper Hunter; never within the dome, but in a neat round depression on the top. I had many opportunities of driving the female off the nest, and I can therefore speak with confidence as to this fact. Whether this bird resorts only to places where it may avail itself of the nest of thePomatorhinus, or whether, under other circumstances, it constructs a nest for itself, are points to which I would call the attention of those who are favourably situated for investigating them; and who, by so doing, would render the history of this species so much the more complete. It is probable that, in places where no suitable substitute is to be found, it makes a rather small nest, like all the other species of its tribe. It commences breeding early, and rears at least two broods in the year: on reference to my note-book, I find I saw fully-fledged young on the 19th of November, and that I took many of their eggs in December: they were generally two in number, of a rich salmon colour irregularly spotted with rust-brown, one inch and a quarter long by ten and a half lines broad.
The sexes differ in no respect from each other either in the colouring of the plumage or in the blended richness and delicacy of the blue surrounding the eye, to which it is almost impossible for the artist to do justice.
The young assume the plumage of the adult from the nest, but differ from them in having the naked face and the base of the bill of a pale yellowish olive, which gradually changes to blue after the first season; this has doubtless occasioned the great number of synonyms quoted above.
The adults have the crown of the head and back of the neck black; lower part of the face, chin and centre of the chest slaty black; a crescent-shaped mark at the occiput, a line from the lower mandible passing down each side of the neck, and all the under surface pure white; the upper surface, wings, and tail golden olive; the inner webs of the primaries and all but the two centre tail-feathers brown; the tail-feathers tipped with white; basal portion of the bill pale bluish grey, passing into blackish horn-colour at the tip; bare space surrounding the eye rich deep blue, becoming of a lighter and greenish hue above the eye; irides yellowish white; eyelash jet-black; feet bluish grey.
The young of the first autumn have the eye dark olive with a black lash, and the denuded parts surrounding it, the base of the under mandible and the gape greenish brimstone-yellow; nostrils and culmen near the head yellowish horn-colour, passing into blackish brown at the tip; feet very similar to those of the adult.
The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size, on a branch of one of the loftyEucalyptiof the river Hunter.