Examples of this species occur in almost every collection sent from Moreton Bay; I regret to add that it is one of the few birds I had no opportunities of observing in a state of nature, and that nothing is at present known of its habits and economy. Judging from the specimens I have examined, I believe that the sexes are alike in plumage.
Lores black; head, all the upper surface, wing-coverts, throat and breast grey; primaries and secondaries black; the former narrowly, and the latter broadly margined on their external edges with grey; tail grey at the base, black for the remainder of its length; abdomen, under surface of the shoulder, and under tail-coverts white, crossed by numerous decided narrow bars of black; bill and feet black.
The figures are of the natural size.
PTEROPODOCYS PHASIANELLUS: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
PTEROPODOCYS PHASIANELLA.
Ground Graucalus.
Graucalus Phasianellus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 142.
Ceblepyris maxima, Rupp. Mon. in Mus. Senckenbergianum, 1839, p. 28. taf. iii.
Goo-rä-ling, Aborigines of York, Western Australia.
The rarity of this species in our collections is sufficient evidence that it is a bird inhabiting the interior of the country, and that its native localities have been seldom visited by the explorer; hence it was a source of no ordinary gratification to me when I first encountered it on the plains bordering the River Namoi in New South Wales, and perceived that no very lengthened study of its habits and mode of life was requisite to ascertain that its structure is as beautifully adapted for terrestrial progression and for a residence on the ground, as the structure of the other Graucali fits them to inhabit the branches of the trees; more beautiful modifications of form in fact can scarcely be seen than occur among the members of this group, which now comprehends a considerable number of species; the present bird, however, is the only terrestrial one that has yet come under my notice, either from Australia or the great nursery of these birds—India and the Indian islands. The lengthened form of the tarsi and tail and the narrow form of the bill are the most striking of the structural differences between Pteropodocys and Graucalus, and are so apparent that they must be perceptible at a single glance to all who will examine them. Plains and open glades skirted by belts of high trees are the localities in which I generally met with this bird either in pairs or small parties of four or five; in the latter case they were probably the brood of the year, as they usually consisted of both immature and adult birds.