Part 20

All the upper surface brown; wings, tail-coverts and tail rufous brown, the latter indistinctly barred with a darker tint; under surface grey, gradually passing into the brown of the upper surface; irides bright reddish brown; upper mandible brown, lower mandible bluish green at the tip and greenish white at the base; legs bluish grey.

The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size.

ATRICHIA CLAMOSA: Gould.

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

ATRICHIA CLAMOSA, Gould. Noisy Brush-bird.

Atrichia clamosa, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., January 9, 1844.

Few of the novelties received from Australia are more interesting than the species to which I have given the generic name of Atrichia. It is one of the discoveries made by Mr. Gilbert, who met with it among the dense scrubs of Western Australia, and who had his attention attracted to it by its peculiar and noisy note long before he had an opportunity of observing it; and it was only after many days of patient and motionless watching among the scrubs that he succeeded in obtaining specimens, and these unfortunately were shot at so short a distance from his gun that they were all much mutilated. Future research will doubtless furnish us with some highly interesting information respecting the economy and history of this curious form, which is evidently destined to tenant the most dense thickets and tangled beds of dwarf trees, and consequently, from its recluse habits, rarely to meet the gaze of civilized man.

The examples forwarded to me by Mr. Gilbert were killed between Perth and Augusta in Western Australia, and were all males. The females will doubtless, when discovered, prove to differ but little from their mates, except that the black mark on the breast will not be so large or conspicuous. I am led to offer this opinion from the circumstance of one of the specimens sent being a young male, which usually resembles the female during the first year, and in which this mark is less conspicuous than in the others.

All the upper surface, wings and tail brown, each feather crossed by several obscure crescent-shaped bars of brown; the inner webs of the primaries very dark brown, without markings, and the tail freckled instead of barred; throat and chest reddish white, with a large irregular patch of black on the lower part of the throat; flanks brown; abdomen and under tail-coverts rufous; bill horn-colour; irides dark brown.

The figures are of the natural size.

SPHENŒACUS GALACTOTES.

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

SPHENŒACUS GALACTOTES. Tawny Sphenœacus.

Malurus galactotes, Temm. Pl. Col., 65.

Megalurus galactotes, Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 228.

This is a scarce species in New South Wales, the few individuals I have seen being-from the grassy districts of the Liverpool Plains; in all probability, however, it ranges along the eastern and over the whole of the northern portion of Australia. Mr. Gilbert’s notes inform me that he found it “tolerably abundant on the islands at the head of Van Diemen’s Gulf, where it inhabits the long grass or rushes growing in or adjacent to the swamps; it is so shy that it is very rarely seen; when closely hunted it takes wing, but flying appears to be a difficult action at all times; at least I have never seen it sustain a flight of more than a hundred yards at the utmost, and even in that short distance it seemed ready to sink into the grass with fatigue. The only note I have heard it emit is a harsh and rapidly repeated chutch. The stomachs of those I dissected were extremely muscular, and contained the remains of insects of various kinds and what appeared to be vegetable fibres.”

General plumage pale brown, deepening into rufous on the crown of the head and fading into dull white on the throat and centre of the abdomen; all the feathers of the upper surface with blackish brown centres; secondaries blackish brown, broadly margined with pale brown; tail pale brown, crossed with indistinct bars of a darker tint; irides light brown; upper mandible olive-brown, the cutting edges light yellowish white; lower mandible bluish white; tarsi and feet light reddish flesh-colour.

The figures are of the natural size.

SPHENŒACUS GRAMINEUS: Gould.

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

SPHENŒACUS GRAMINEUS, Gould. Grass-loving Sphenœacus.

Sphenœacus gramineus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 19.

Although the present species is very generally dispersed over the whole of the southern portions of Australia and Van Diemen’s Land in all situations suitable to its habits, it is as little known to the colonists as if it were not in existence, which is readily accounted for by its recluse nature and the localities it frequents, the thick beds of grasses, rushes and other kinds of herbage growing in low, damp and wet places on the mainland, and on such islands as those of Green and Actæeon in D’Entrecasteaux’ Channel, being its favourite places of resort. As may be supposed, it is a very shy species, and will almost allow itself to be trodden upon before it will quit the place of its concealment; in the open grassy beds of the flats it is more easily driven from its retreat, but even then it merely flies a few yards and then pitches again among the herbage. It would be very interesting to know whether the habits above described accord with those of the other members of the genus Sphenœacus, in which, with the concurrence of Mr. Strickland, who instituted it, I have placed the present bird.

Its song consists of four or five plaintively uttered notes, repeated five or six times in succession.

The nest is generally a very compact structure, and in Western Australia is formed of the soft tops of the flowering part of the reeds, and the thin skin-like coating of the reed-stalks, but occasionally of fine swamp-grasses, always lined with feathers; in some instances two large feathers are made to meet over the opening, which is near the top of the nest, and thus protects the inside from cold or rain: it is attached to two or three upright reeds about two feet from the surface of the water. The eggs, which are laid during the months of August and September, are four in number, nearly eight lines long and six lines broad; they are of a fleshy white, freckled and streaked all over, particularly at the larger end, with purplish red; in some instances large obscure blotches of reddish grey appear as beneath the surface of the shell.

The sexes present no difference in size or colour, and there is scarcely any variation in specimens from Van Diemen’s Land, Swan River and New South Wales.

Stripe over the eye white; all the upper surface brown, the centre of the feathers being dark brown; secondaries brownish black, margined with buff; tail pale reddish brown, with dark brown shafts; under surface grey, passing into black on the flanks and vent; each feather of the breast with a very minute line of dark brown down the centre; bill and tarsi fleshy brown.

The figures are of the natural size.