Part 25

The sexes present so little difference in colour that they cannot be distinguished with certainty; the female is somewhat the smaller. The young birds differ from the adult in having a few faint spots on the throat, but which are entirely lost as they advance in age.

The nest of this species, which, as I have before remarked, is very like that of the European Wren (Troglodytes Europæus), is made of leaves, moss and fibrous roots, and lined with feathers; its site is various, being sometimes under the shelving of a bank, and at others at the foot of a tuft of grass or herbage, beneath a stone, &c.; it is quite spherical in form, with a small neatly-made hole for an entrance. The breeding-season includes August, and the three or four following months, during which period two or three broods are usually reared. The eggs, which are generally three in number, are of a dull flesh-white, freckled and streaked with purplish brown, particularly at the larger end; their medium length is ten lines and breadth seven and a half lines.

Centre of the forehead, lores, and a line beneath the eye black; over the eye a line of greyish white; crown of the head, all the upper surface, wings and tail olive-brown; wing-coverts tipped with white; spurious wing blackish brown; throat white, striated with black; centre of the chest and abdomen citron-yellow; flanks olive-brown; bill blackish brown; feet yellowish white.

The Plate represents the male and female of the natural size. The very pretty plant was gathered in the brushes of Illawarra, where the birds are tolerably numerous.

SERICORNIS LÆVIGASTER: Gould.

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

SERICORNIS LÆVIGASTER, Gould. Buff-breasted Sericornis.

Sericornis lævigaster, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., January 27, 1847.

This species, although nearly allied to the S. maculata, is distinguished by the entire absence of spots on the throat and chest, and by having the tail-feathers largely tipped with white.

The male and female in my collection, and which are represented on the accompanying Plate, are part of the results of Dr. Leichardt’s overland expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, they having been killed by Mr. Gilbert on the 30th of November 1844; but no information whatever is to be found respecting them in his Journal.

All the upper surface brown; tail deepening into black near the extremity and tipped with white; spurious wing-feathers dark brown, margined with white on their inner webs; lores and mark under the eye brownish black; above the eye an indistinct line of white; all the under surface washed with yellowish buff; irides greenish white.

The female presents the usual differences, being somewhat smaller in size and wanting the black mark on the lores.

The figures are of the natural size.

SERICORNIS MACULATA: Gould.

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

SERICORNIS MACULATUS, Gould. Spotted Sericornis.

Sericornis maculatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., January 27, 1847.

Goor-gal, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia.

The present bird, to which I have assigned the specific term of maculatus has always been a source of perplexity to me, from the circumstance of its varying considerably in its markings; after mature consideration, however, I am induced to regard the specimens from South Australia, Western Australia and the north coast as referable to one and the same species, each however possessing trivial differences by which it may be known from whence it was received. Specimens from the Houtman’s Abrolhos are of a rather smaller size, of a much greyer tint on the back, and have much darker-coloured legs. I believe that the bright yellow wash on the under surface of some individuals is characteristic of newly moulted or young birds: in this species, not only is the throat spotted with black, but the spotting extends over the chest and some distance down the flanks; it has at all times the tail tipped with white, a character which serves at once to distinguish it from S. osculans and S. frontalis. Scrubby places, and ravines covered with dense herbage, whether in sterile or humid situations, are its favourite resort. It has the same shy disposition and retiring habits as the other members of the genus, depending for safety rather upon its creeping, mouse-like habits than upon its powers of flight, which are indeed seldom resorted to.

Its note is a harsh, grating kind of twitter, often repeated.

The nest is a warm, dome-shaped structure, formed of leaves and grasses, and lined with feathers; the eggs are reddish white, minutely freckled and streaked with reddish brown, particularly at the larger end; they are three in number, nine lines long by seven lines broad.

All the upper surface, wings and tail brown; the latter crossed near the tip with a broad band of blackish brown, and the outer feathers slightly tipped with white; forehead and lores deep black; stripe above and a small patch below the eye white; spurious wing-feathers black, margined on their inner web with white; under surface in some specimens greyish white, in others washed with yellow; the feathers of the throat and chest spotted with black on a light ground; irides greenish white.

The female is somewhat smaller than her mate, and has the lores brown instead of black; in other respects her plumage is very similar to that of the male.

The upper figure in the accompanying Plate represents a female, and the lower probably a young male; the figures are of the natural size, from specimens killed in Southern and Western Australia.

ACANTHIZA MAGNIROSTRIS: Gould.

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

SERICORNIS MAGNIROSTRIS, Gould. Large-billed Sericornis.

Acanthiza magnirostra, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 146; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.