The sexes, which differ considerably from each other, may be thus described:—
The male has the general plumage dark slate-grey, deepening into brown on the back and wings, much paler on the under surface, and fading into white on the throat and breast; over the eye a faint stripe of greyish white; bill black; irides brown; feet light lead-colour.
The female has all the upper surface, wings and tail brown; upper tail-coverts slate-grey; over the eye a stripe of rust-red; under surface light grey tinged with brown on the throat and breast, and each feather with a stripe of dark brown down the centre; bill horn-colour at the base, black at the tip.
The young is similar to the female, but has the stripes of the under surface much broader and more conspicuous, the line over the eye of a deeper red, and the tail grey.
The Plate represents a male, a female, and a young bird of the natural size.
COLLURICINCLA PARVULA: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
COLLURICINCLA PARVULA, Gould.
Little Colluricincla.
Colluricincla parvula, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., May 27, 1845.
This species, to which I have given the name of parvula, from the circumstance of its being the smallest of the genus that has come under my notice, is a native of Port Essington and the neighbouring parts of the northern coast of Australia. Mr. Gilbert, to whose notes I must refer for all that is known about it, states that it is an inhabitant of the thickets; is an extremely shy bird, and is generally seen on or near the ground. Its note is a fine thrush-like tone, very clear, loud and melodious. The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects of various kinds, but principally of coleoptera. The nest and eggs were brought me by a native; they were taken from the hollow part of a tree about four feet from the ground; the former, which was too much injured to be preserved, was formed of small twigs and narrow strips of the bark of a Melaleuca. The eggs were two in number, of a beautiful pearly flesh-white, regularly spotted all over with dull reddish orange and umber-brown; like the eggs of the other species of the genus, they are also sprinkled over with bluish markings, which appear as if beneath the surface of the shell; their medium length is one inch, and breadth nine lines.