The male has the forehead, face, throat and all the under surface pure white; occiput black; chest crossed by a broad crescent of deep black, the points of which run up the sides of the neck and join the black of the occiput; upper surface dark grey, with a patch of dark brown in the centre of each feather; wings dark brown; upper tail-coverts black; two centre tail-feathers dark brown; the remainder dark brown, with a large oblong patch of white on the inner web at the tip; irides, in some, beautiful reddish buff, in others yellow with a slight tinge of red on the outer edge of the pupil; bill and feet black.
The female has the crown of the head, all the upper surface, wings and tail greyish brown, with a slight indication of the oblong white spot on the inner webs of the latter; throat and under surface buffy white; and a slight crescent of black on the chest.
The figures are of the natural size.
EPTHIANURA AURIFRONS: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter lithog. C. Hullmandel Imp.
EPTHIANURA AURIFRONS, Gould.
Orange-fronted Epthianura.
Epthianura aurifrons, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 148; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
As long since as the year 1837 I had the pleasure of characterizing this species at one of the scientific meetings of the Zoological Society of London, from a specimen which had been presented to the Society’s collection by Lieut. Breton, R.N., a gentleman much attached to zoological science, as exemplified by his numerous donations to that Society, and in his “Excursions in New South Wales, Western Australia and Van Diemen’s Land.”
The Orange-fronted Epthianura must be regarded as a bird of the greatest rarity, for the specimen above mentioned is the only one that has ever come under my notice, and in all probability it is quite unique; hence this is another of the birds to which I would wish to direct the attention of residents in New South Wales, particularly those who have an opportunity of visiting the locality in which it was seen by Lieut. Breton, who, when speaking of Gammon Plains, New South Wales, in the work above mentioned, says “we shot also some Platypi, and a small bird like a Mule Canary (a species of Saxicola); this last is exceedingly rare in the colony, and I am not aware that any other person possesses a specimen; there were only three together, and the natives said they had never seen any before.”
In the lengthened wing, largely developed tertiaries, and in the square form of the tail, it offers a greater alliance to Epthianura than to any other genus, and there I have provisionally placed it; future research, however, and a knowledge of its habits and nidification, will determine the justice of this opinion, or the propriety of separating it into a distinct genus.