Part 49

Monarcha trivirgata, Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part II.

Although the Monarcha trivirgata has been known to naturalists for many years it is still a scarce bird, very few specimens occurring in any of the numerous collections sent home from Australia, which is doubtless occasioned by its true habitat not having been yet discovered. All the specimens I have seen have been procured in the Moreton Bay district of the east coast.

I have never yet seen what may be considered the female of this bird; all the examples that have come under my notice being males and marked precisely alike, with the exception of one procured during the early part of Dr. Leichardt’s expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, which differs in being destitute of the rufous tint on the flanks.

Forehead, throat, space round the eye, and the ears jet-black; upper surface dark grey; tail black, the three outer feathers on each side largely tipped with white; cheeks, chest and flanks rufous; abdomen and tail-coverts white; bill lead-colour; feet black.

The figures are of the natural size, and represent the bird as usually seen, and also the variation in colouring above-mentioned.

GERYGONE ALBOGULARIS: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]

GERYGONE ALBOGULARIS, Gould. White-throated Gerygone.

Psilopus albogularis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 147; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.

This sprightly and active little bird is a stationary species and is abundantly dispersed over all parts of New South Wales, but evinces a greater preference for the open forests of Eucalypti than for the brushes near the coast. I found it in considerable numbers in every part of the Upper Hunter district, nearly always among the gum-trees, and constantly uttering a peculiar and not very harmonious strain. Like its near allies it is very active among the small leafy branches of the trees, where it searches with the greatest avidity for insects, upon which it almost exclusively subsists; resorting for this purpose to trees of all heights, from the low sapling of two yards high to those of the loftiest growth.

I believe that a species very nearly allied to the present inhabits the north coast of Australia: it is very readily distinguished by the markings of the tail; and must not be confounded with the bird here represented.

I have killed young birds in January which had not long left the nest, but was not so fortunate as to discover the nest itself.

The sexes are nearly alike in plumage; but the young of the year are distinguished from the adult by the throat being of the same colour as the breast, instead of white.

Crown of the head, ear-coverts, and all the upper surface olive-brown; throat white; chest and all the under surface bright citron-yellow; two centre tail-feathers brown, the remainder brown at the base, above which is a bar of white, succeeded by a broader one of deep blackish brown; the tips of all but the two middle ones buffy white on their inner web; bill blackish brown; irides scarlet; feet blackish brown in some specimens, and leaden brown in others.

The figures represent an adult and a young bird of the year of the natural size.

GERYGONE FUSCA: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]

GERYGONE FUSCA, Gould. Fuscous Gerygone.

Psilopus fuscus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 147; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.

Gerygone fusca, Gould in De Strzelecki’s Phys. Descr. of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, p. 321.

The Gerygone fusca is an inhabitant of New South Wales, where it is to be found in all the brushes near the coast, as well as in the cedar and other brushes on the sides of the ranges in the interior. As its form would lead us to imagine, it has much of the habit of the Flycatcher, and lives almost exclusively upon insects, such as aphides and other swift-winged species, which are as frequently taken on the wing as they are on the under sides of leaves, &c. It particularly loves to dwell in the most retired and gloomy part of the forest, among the creeping Bignonias, &c., and is a most active and lively little bird, flitting about from branch to branch; sometimes, like the true Flycatchers, returning again to the same branch, and at others hanging to the smaller branches and scrutinizing the under sides of the leaves, after the manner of the Acanthizæ.

Its song, which is almost incessantly poured forth, is a pleasing, twittering sound.

The breeding-season comprises the months of September, October and November. The nest is a delicate and beautiful structure of a domed oblong form, the lower end terminating in a point, with the entrance at the side near the top covered with a well-formed spout, which completely excludes both sun and rain from the interior of the nest; it is about eight inches in height and ten in circumference; the spout projecting about two inches, and the entrance being scarcely an inch in diameter. The body of a nest found in the brushes of the Hunter was composed of green moss, mouse-eared lichen, soft wiry grasses, the inner bark of trees and other materials, and was lined with extremely soft grasses. The eggs are three in number, and are very similar, both in size and colour, to those of the Malurus cyaneus, being minutely speckled with red on a white ground; they are seven and a half lines long by five and a half lines broad.

The sexes are alike in colour.

Crown of the head, all the upper surface and wings dark fuscous brown, slightly tinged with olive; two centre tail-feathers brown; the remainder white at the base, succeeded by a broad band of deep blackish brown, round which is a broad stripe of white, which entirely crosses the outer feathers, but only the inner webs of the remainder, the tips pale brown; throat and chest grey; abdomen and under tail-coverts white; bill and feet deep blackish brown; irides bright brownish red.

The Plate represents the bird of the natural size.

GERYGONE CULICIVORUS: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp. ]