Part 32

Motacilla solitaria, Lewin, Birds of New Holl., pl. 16.

Solitary Flycatcher, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. vi. p. 220.

Saxicola solitaria, Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 236.

Origma solitaria, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 30.

Perhaps no one of the smaller birds of New South Wales has attracted a greater share of the attention of ornithologists than the present; a desire indeed of gaining a more complete knowledge of its habits and manners has been generally expressed. Aware of this fact, I made myself as much acquainted therewith as circumstances would admit; and found that they are very peculiar, and different from those of most other birds. Its usual places of resort are the neighbourhood of water-courses and stony, rocky gullies; so exclusively in fact is it confined to such situations, that it never visits the forests, nor have I ever seen it perching on the branches of the trees; indeed it would seem to have an aversion to so doing, as it does not even resort to them as a resting-place for its nest, but suspends it to the ceilings of caverns and the under surface of overhanging rocks in a manner that is most surprising; the nest, which is of an oblong, globular form, and composed of moss and other similar substances, is suspended by a narrow neck, and presents one of the most singular instances of bird architecture that has yet come under my notice. The breeding-season extends over the months of September, October and November, when it is not unusual to find three or four nests suspended to the ceiling of a small dark cavern. I did not succeed in procuring its eggs.

Its food consists of insects of various kinds.

Its note is a low, squeaking sound, which it utters while hopping about the rocks with its tail raised above the level of the body, after the manner of some of the Acanthizæ.

The true habitat of this species is New South Wales, which, so far as I am aware, is its exclusive place of abode; I have never seen it from any of the other colonies: over that part of the country it is very generally distributed wherever situations occur suitable to its habits; the rocky beds of the gullies, both near the coast and among the mountains of the interior, being equally frequented by it, but never in any great numbers. It will be seen that it was one of the birds which excited the notice and interest of Mr. Caley, who, in his “Notes,” says, “Cataract Bird; an inhabitant of rocky ground. While at the waterfall of Carrung-gurring, about thirty miles to the southward of Prospect Hill, I saw several of them. I have also seen them in the North Rocks, about a couple of miles from Paramatta, and always upon the rocks. I never observed them in trees or bushes.”

The sexes are precisely similar in their plumage, which may be thus described:—

All the upper surface and wings dull brown; tail brownish black; throat grey; under surface dark rusty red; forehead slightly washed with ferruginous red; irides dark reddish brown; bill and feet brownish black, the former rather lighter than the latter.

The figures are of the natural size.

CALAMANTHUS FULIGINOSUS.

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

CALAMANTHUS FULIGINOSUS. Striated Reed-Lark.

Anthus fuliginosus, Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 230.

Praticola fuliginosa, G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 27.

This species is very generally dispersed over Van Diemen’s Land, where it frequents open forests and sandy land covered with scrub and dwarf shrub-like trees. It carries its tail erect, like the Maluri, but differs from the members of that group in moving that organ in a lateral direction whenever it perches, and at the termination of a succession of hops on the ground, over which it passes with great celerity, depending at all times for safety more on this power than on that of flight. It eludes pursuit by running through a bush to the opposite side, and hopping off to another beyond, which it does quite unseen unless closely watched. It builds a dome-shaped nest, which is placed on the ground, and frequently so hidden by the surrounding grass as to be with great difficulty discovered; a small narrow avenue of a yard in length, like the run of a mouse, being frequently resorted to by the bird, expressly, as one would suppose, to avoid detection. The eggs are three or four in number, rather large and somewhat round in form, of a reddish wood-brown, obscurely clouded with markings of reddish brown, the larger end of the eggs being the darkest; their medium length is ten lines and a half, and breadth eight lines and a half.

The nest is formed of dried grasses and leaves, and is warmly lined with feathers. The breeding-season commences in September and lasts until January.

This species emits so strong an odour, that pointers and other game-dogs stand to it as they do to a quail, and that too at a considerable distance. It possesses a clear and pretty song, which it frequently pours forth while sitting on a bare twig, or the summit of a low bush or shrub among the thickets, to a part of which it dives on the least alarm.

The sexes are precisely similar in colour, and nearly so in size.

All the upper surface olive, with a broad mark of sooty black down the centre of each feather; wings sooty black, narrowly margined with olive; tail olive, all but the two centre feathers crossed near the tip by a broad band of sooty black; line over the eye white; throat greyish white; breast, abdomen and flanks deep buff, each feather of the throat, breast and flanks with a narrow line of sooty black down the centre; irides light sandy buff; bill and feet brownish flesh-colour.

The Plate represents two birds of the natural size; the beautiful rush on which they are figured is very abundant in the immediate vicinity of Hobart Town.

CALAMANTHUS CAMPESTRIS: Gould.

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

CALAMANTHUS CAMPESTRIS. Field Reed-Lark.

Praticola campestris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 171.

The Calamanthus campestris is a native of Southern and Western Australia, where it inhabits open plains and scrubby lands, particularly such as are interspersed with tufts of coarse grasses. It has never yet been discovered within the colony of New South Wales. Like its near ally of Van Diemen’s Land it is a rather shy and recluse species, running mouse-like over the ground among the herbage with its tail perfectly erect, and is not easily forced to fly, or even to quit the bush in which it has secreted itself.

Its song is an agreeable and pretty warble, which is poured forth while the bird is perched upon the topmost twig of a small bush.