The bird generally evinces a preference for open forest land, but during the breeding-season affects the neighbourhood of brooks and lagoons, which may be accounted for by the fact of such situations being necessary to enable it to procure the mud wherewith to build its nest, besides which they also afford it an abundance of insect food.
The whole of the plumage black, with glossy green reflections, with the exception of the inner webs of the primaries, which are white for three parts of their length from the base; irides scarlet; bill and feet black.
The figure is that of a male somewhat less than the natural size.
STRUTHIDEA CINEREA: Gould.
J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith. C. Hullmandel Imp.
STRUTHIDEA CINEREA, Gould.
Grey Struthidea.
Struthidea cinerea, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part IV. p. 143; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part I.—G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of Birds, 2nd Edit., p. 51.
Brachystoma cinerea, Swains. An. in Menag., and Two Cent. and a Quarter of New Birds, No. 51.—Class. of Birds, vol. ii. p. 266.
So little information has been obtained respecting this highly curious bird, that my account of it must necessarily be very meagre. From what I have personally observed, it would seem to be a species peculiar to the interior, and so far as is yet known, confined to the south-eastern portion of the Australian continent. I found it inhabiting the pine ridges, as they are termed by the colonists, bordering the extensive plains of the Upper and Lower Namoi, and giving a decided preference to the Callitris pyramidalis, a fine fir-like tree peculiar to the district. Those I observed were always in small companies of three or four together, on the topmost branches of the trees, and were extremely quick and restless, the whole company leaping from branch to branch in rapid succession, at the same time throwing up and expanding their tails and wings; these actions were generally accompanied with a harsh unpleasant note; their manners, in fact, closely resembled those of the White-winged Chough and the Pomatorhini: a knowledge of its nidification and the number and colour of its eggs would throw considerable light upon the affinities of this curious form. I would, therefore, particularly impress upon those who may reside in, or visit the localities it inhabits, to pay especial attention to, and to make known their observations upon, these points.
The food, as ascertained by dissection, was insects; the stomachs of those examined were tolerably hard and muscular, and contained the remains of coleoptera.