The holes selected for the nest are sometimes high up in the loftiest trees, at others within a few feet of the ground. The young birds have the tips of the spurious wing orange instead of yellow; and although the whole plumage possesses the same character as that of the adults, the markings are less brilliant and well-defined. The sexes offer no observable difference in their colouring by which they can be distinguished.
Forehead and crown of the head black, the latter with a stripe of white down the centre of each feather; a stripe of yellow commences at the base of the upper mandible, and runs above the eye, where it is joined by a stripe of white, which proceeds nearly to the occiput; back of the neck and back greyish olive-brown; rump and upper tail-coverts olive-brown; wings black, each of the primaries slightly tipped with white, and the third externally edged with white; the secondaries edged with white and rufous, and the tips of the spurious wing yellow; tail blackish brown, each feather having a transverse mark of white at the tip; ear-coverts and cheeks grey; throat yellow, passing into lighter yellow on the flanks; centre of the abdomen white; irides olive-brown; bill black; feet brown.
The figures are of the natural size.
PARDALOTUS MELANOCEPHALUS: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
PARDALOTUS MELANOCEPHALUS, Gould.
Black-headed Pardalote.
Pardalotus melanocephalus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part v. p. 149; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
I have received numerous examples of this species from Moreton Bay, where it probably takes the place of the P. striatus, from which it is distinguished by the black colouring of its head and by its thicker bill, but to which it is very nearly allied, as well as to the P. uropygialis; it is in fact directly intermediate between the two, having the black head of the latter without the yellow colouring of the rump. There is no external difference in the sexes.
Nothing whatever is known of its history.
Crown of the head, lores and ear-coverts black; over each eye a stripe commencing at the nostrils, the anterior half of which is orange, and the posterior white; sides of the face and neck white; back of the neck and back olive-grey; upper tail-coverts brownish buff; tail black, each feather tipped with white; wings blackish brown, the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh primaries white; secondaries edged and tipped with white; one of the wing-coverts broadly margined on the inner web with white, forming an oblique line across the shoulder; spurious wing tipped with crimson; line down the centre of the throat, the breast and middle of the abdomen bright yellow; vent and under tail-coverts buff; hill black; feet brown.