The Bell Miner
Entry for 'Miners' in Australian Bird Names: A Complete Guide
The entry for 'miners' in Australian Bird Names: A Complete Guide by Ian Fraser and Jeannie Gray (CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria, 2013) mentions yet another folk etymology for 'Bell Miner' but suggests the mynas of Asia as being more plausible. The word 'minah' or 'miner' was already current in the mid 19th century:
'Miner' is sometimes disputed (e.g. Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds 1990-2006, vol. 5 maintained, without support, that it is based on the Bell Miners' calls reminding settlers of distant miners hammering at the workface') but it seems more likely that the origin is with the Asian starlings usually now called 'myna' but in the past equally well known here as 'mina' or 'minah' (Henderson 1832 referred to 'noisy minas'). The black mask, yellow eye-patch, bill and legs (and stroppy disposition!) are obvious similarities between Noisy Miner and Common Myna, especially to non-birders. (Even though Common Mynas were not introduced to Australia until the 1860s, they were already familiar both via the Indian and south-east Asian trade and military connections with Australia, and as popular cage birds.) The change to the more familiar form 'miner' was a likely step. Gould (1848) noted that it was used in that form by 'Colonists of Van Diemen's Land', though he did not adopt it except, oddly, for the Yellow-throated Miner from inland New South Wales. On the other hand, even in the 20th century Mathews (1913a) was using still 'minah' as the names of Manorina species.
Concerning the Bell Miner, the entry in Fraser and Gray confirms that Bellbird was in common use from the very early days of the colonisation of Australia:
The tinkling notes of a Bell Miner colony were noted very early; Banks in the Endeavour Journal reported a morning chorus 'almost imitating small bells' (Banks 1770). David Collins, 30 years later, was less impressed, referring to 'the melancholy cry of the bell-bird' (Collins 1802) but saying that the name was established by then. Gould was so convinced of the ubiquity of the name that he used Australian Bell-bird as first-choice name (Gould 1848), an unusual informality for him.
Other names: Black-browed Thrush (Latham 1801) as per his species name; Bellbird, Bell Mynah or Mina.
Manorina melanocephala was early called by a number of ornithological names; 'Noisy Miner' only became general in the ornithological literature much later. Popular names, in particular Soldier Bird, are older:
(Noisy Miner) A difficult name to object to, but it seems not to have become established in the literature until close to the 20th century; the earliest we know of was by C.M. Lyons of Melbourne University who used the name Noisy Miner in 1901 (Lyons 1901 -- ironically, given that as he was writing about Cooper Creek, he was actually referring to Yellow-throated Miner). (Henderson (1832) referred to 'restless and noisy minas' but as this was purely descriptive it was not the origin of Noisy Miner.)
Other names: Chattering Bee-eater or Honey-eater (Latham 1801); Garrulous Honeyeater, Gould's name, from the then species name Myzantha garrula; Noisy Mina or Minah; Noisy Micky, a familiar name, like Willie Wagtail; hence also just Micky or Mickie; Black-headed Minah, from the species name, as used by Mathews (1913a). ... Black-headed Honey-eater, used by Gould (1848) for his claimed separate species in Tasmania. Cherry-eater, for its fruit-eating; Soldierbird -- a name already familiar when Richard Howitt reported in 1845 that he 'found that this creature was very appropriately named the soldier-bird. It is the very sentinel of the woods, sending far on before you intelligence of your coming' (Howitt 1845). Squeaker; Snakebird, for the habit of the entire colony following and harassing predators, including snakes.