Part 30

It commences breeding very early, and rears at least three broods a year. The nest is somewhat carelessly constructed of leaves, grasses, wool, &c., and is of a domed form, with a small hole for an entrance. It would seem that the same nest is resorted to for several succeeding years; but the most curious feature connected with it is, that a small cup-shaped depression or second nest, as it were, is frequently formed on the top or side of the other, and which is said to be either the roosting-place of the male, or where he may sit in order to be in company with the female during the task of nidification. I have myself found many of these double nests, but have not had opportunities for satisfactorily ascertaining the use of the upper one. The bird very readily resorts to the gardens of the settler, and constructs its curious nest in any low shrub. In Van Diemen’s Land one of the trees most frequently selected for the purpose is the prickly Mimosa: in Western Australia it is frequently suspended from the overhanging branches of the Xanthorrhœa, and in the district of the Upper Hunter upon the apple-trees (Angophoræ). The nest varies very much in size, being in some instances considerably larger than the one figured. The eggs are generally of a beautiful uniform flesh-colour, but occasionally they are found sprinkled over with very minute specks of reddish yellow, which in some instances form a zone at the larger end; they are four or five in number, their medium length being nine lines and breadth six lines.

This is one of the species to which the Bronze Cuckoo (Chalcites lucidus) delegates the task of rearing its young. I have several times taken the egg of the cuckoo from the nest of this bird and also the young, in which latter case the parasitical bird was the sole occupant.

The song of the Acanthiza chrysorrhœa is extremely pretty, many of its notes closely resembling those of the Goldfinch of Europe (Carduelis elegans). Its food consists of small coleopterous and other kinds of insects.

The sexes are alike in plumage, and may be thus described:—

Forehead black, with a spot of white at the tip of each feather; cheeks, throat, and a line from the nostrils over each eye greyish white; chest and under surface yellowish white, passing into light olive-brown on the flanks; upper surface and wings olive-brown; rump and upper tail-coverts bright citron-yellow; base of the tail-feathers white, tinged with yellow; the external margin of the outer feathers and the tips of all brownish grey, the central portion blackish brown; bill and feet blackish brown; irides very light grey.

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

EPTHIANURA ALBIFRONS: Gould.

J. & E. Gould del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

EPTHIANURA ALBIFRONS. White-fronted Epthianura.

Acanthiza albifrons, Jard. and Selb. Ill. Orn., vol. ii. pl. 56. figs. 1 and 2.

I first met with this species in a state of nature on the small islands in Bass’s Straits, where it had evidently been breeding, as I observed several old nests in the Barilla and other stunted bushes which clothe those isolated spots, particularly Chalky and Green Islands, immediately contiguous to Flinders. I did not observe it in Van Diemen’s Land or to the southward of the localities above mentioned. It would appear that it extends over the whole of the southern portion of the Australian continent, as I have specimens in my collection which were killed at Swan River, in South Australia, and in New South Wales: the extent of its range northwards is not known; I have never yet seen examples from the north coast.

It is a most sprightly and active little bird, particularly the male, whose white throat and banded chest render him much more conspicuous than the sombre-coloured female. As the structure of its toes and lengthened tertiaries would lead us to expect, its natural province is the ground, to which it habitually resorts, and decidedly evinces a preference to spots of a sterile and barren character. The male, like many of the Saxicoline birds, frequently perches either on the summit of a stone, or on the extremity of a dead and leafless branch. It is rather shy in its disposition, and when disturbed flies off with considerable rapidity to the distance of two or three hundred yards before it alights again. I observed it in small companies on the plains near Adelaide, over the hard clayey surface of which it tripped with amazing quickness, with a motion that can neither be described as a hop or a run, but something between the two, accompanied by a bobbing action of the tail.

Of its nidification, I regret to say, nothing is at present known.

The male has the forehead, face, throat and all the under surface pure white; occiput black; chest crossed by a broad crescent of deep black, the points of which run up the sides of the neck and join the black of the occiput; upper surface dark grey, with a patch of dark brown in the centre of each feather; wings dark brown; upper tail-coverts black; two centre tail-feathers dark brown; the remainder dark brown, with a large oblong patch of white on the inner web at the tip; irides, in some, beautiful reddish buff, in others yellow with a slight tinge of red on the outer edge of the pupil; bill and feet black.

The female has the crown of the head, all the upper surface, wings and tail greyish brown, with a slight indication of the oblong white spot on the inner webs of the latter; throat and under surface buffy white; and a slight crescent of black on the chest.

The figures are of the natural size.

EPTHIANURA AURIFRONS: Gould.

J. Gould and H. C. Richter lithog. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

EPTHIANURA AURIFRONS, Gould. Orange-fronted Epthianura.

Epthianura aurifrons, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 148; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.

As long since as the year 1837 I had the pleasure of characterizing this species at one of the scientific meetings of the Zoological Society of London, from a specimen which had been presented to the Society’s collection by Lieut. Breton, R.N., a gentleman much attached to zoological science, as exemplified by his numerous donations to that Society, and in his “Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.”

The Orange-fronted Epthianura must be regarded as a bird of the greatest rarity, for the specimen above mentioned is the only one that has ever come under my notice, and in all probability it is quite unique; hence this is another of the birds to which I would wish to direct the attention of residents in New South Wales, particularly those who have an opportunity of visiting the locality in which it was seen by Lieut. Breton, who, when speaking of Gammon Plains, New South Wales, in the work above mentioned, says “we shot also some Platypi, and a small bird like a Mule Canary (a species of Saxicola); this last is exceedingly rare in the colony, and I am not aware that any other person possesses a specimen; there were only three together, and the natives said they had never seen any before.”

In the lengthened wing, largely developed tertiaries, and in the square form of the tail, it offers a greater alliance to Epthianura than to any other genus, and there I have provisionally placed it; future research, however, and a knowledge of its habits and nidification, will determine the justice of this opinion, or the propriety of separating it into a distinct genus.

Head, upper tail-coverts, sides of the neck, breast and all the under surface fine golden orange, which is richest on the forehead and centre of the abdomen; back olive; wings brown, margined with olive; tail brownish black, each feather except the two middle ones having an oval spot of white on the inner web at the tip; chin and centre of the throat black; bill black; feet brown.

The figure is of the natural size.

EPTHIANURA TRICOLOR: Gould.

J. & E. Gould del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp. ]

EPTHIANURA TRICOLOR, Gould. Tri-coloured Epthianura.