| 124. Colluricincla rufogaster, Gould. |
- Colluricincla rufogaster, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 80.
I have assigned this name to a bird lately sent to me by Mr. Strange from the brushes of the Clarence in New South Wales; it may hereafter prove to be identical with the last-mentioned species, C. parvula, the form and admeasurements being precisely the same; but the bird from New South Wales has a lighter coloured bill, and the whole of the under surface washed with deep rufous.
The locality of the bird described by me in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Part IV. p. 6, as Colluricincla fusca, being still unknown, that species has not been included.
Genus Falcunculus, Vieill.
The two species of this genus are not only strictly Australian, but are confined to the southern parts of the country; the F. frontatus inhabiting New South Wales and South Australia, and the F. leucogaster Western Australia. When attacked by their natural enemies or by man, both species defend themselves with their powerful bill and claws with the utmost fury; they also by the same means readily tear off pieces of rotten wood and the thin scaly bark of the Eucalypti in search of insects. The branches of trees are their usual place of resort, and in many of their actions and habits they closely resemble the Tits of Europe and India (genus Parus), while they also assimilate to the Pachycephalæ. They build a round, cup-shaped nest.
| 125. Falcunculus frontatus | [Vol. II. ] Pl. 79. |
| 126. Falcunculus leucogaster, Gould | [Vol. II. ] Pl. 80. |
Mr. Gilbert states that while staying in the Toodyay district of Western Australia in the month of October, he found the nest of this species among the topmost and weakest perpendicular branches of a Eucalyptus, at a height of at least fifty feet: it was of a deep cup-shaped form, composed of the stringy bark of the gum-tree, and lined with fine grasses, the whole matted together externally with cobwebs; the eggs, which are three or four in number, are of a glossy white with numerous minute speckles of dark olive most thickly disposed at the larger end; they are seven-eighths of an inch long by five-eighths of an inch in breadth. He adds, that under ordinary circumstances it is a somewhat shy bird, but when breeding becomes bold and familiar; as an evidence of which he adduces the fact that a flock of sheep were driven every night beneath the tree upon which the nest was being constructed without giving the least alarm to the birds.
Genus Oreoïca, Gould.
Generic characters.