Its song is an agreeable and pretty warble, which is poured forth while the bird is perched upon the topmost twig of a small bush.
This species also emits so very powerful an odour, that my dog frequently pointed at it from a very considerable distance.
The food, as ascertained by dissection, was small coleopterous insects, with which its minute stomach was crammed.
The nest, which is placed on the ground, is a globular structure, composed of grasses and feathers. The eggs are three or four in number, of a light chestnut colour, thickly blotched with deep chestnut-brown, particularly at the larger end.
Forehead rufous, passing into the reddish brown of the crown and upper surface, with a stripe of blackish brown down the centre of each feather; wings sandy brown; internal webs of the primaries dark brown; two centre tail-feathers reddish brown, the remainder reddish brown at the base, crossed towards the extremity with a broad band of brownish black and broadly tipped with white; over the eye a line of white; ear-coverts mingled rufous and white; throat white, gradually passing into the buff of the under surface; all the feathers of the under surface with a stripe of brownish black down their centre; bill blackish brown, lighter at the base of the under mandible; irides rufous brown; feet blackish brown.
The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size.
CHTHONICOLA MINIMA.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. Hullmandel & Walton Imp.
CHTHONICOLA MINIMA.
Little Chthonicola.
Anthus minimus, Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 230.