100 PRIONOPID.i;. 



Collyriocincla rufigaster. 



RUFOUS-BREASTEU SUKIKE THRUSH. 

 Colluriciucla rufogaster, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1845, p. 80. 

 Colluricinda rufigaster, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. lid (1865). 

 Colluricincla parvissima, Gould, Ann. ct Mag. Xat. Hist., Ser. 4, Vol. X, p. 114 (1872). 

 Collyriocincla cerviniventris, North, Rec. .Austr. Mus., Vol. II, p. 19 (1892). 



Adult male — General colour above dull olive brown, sliyhtly shaded with grey, the upper tail- 

 coverts more distinctly tinged with olive ; lesser and median upper wing-coverts like the back; the 

 greater coverts and inner secondaries brown, washed loith olive; primaries and outer secondaries 

 brown on their inner webs, olive-brown on their outer webs; tail-feathers brown, slightly tinged irith 

 olive; feathers in front of the eye dull white; chin and throat pale bnffy- white; remainder of the 

 under surface fawn colour, richer on the abdomen and under tail-coverts, the fore-neck indistinctly 

 streaked with dull olive-brown; bill and legs ^fleshy-brown; iris dark brown. Total length 7-3 inches, 

 wing 3'85, tail 3'3, bill OS, tarsiis 10'). 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — Eastern Queensland, North-eastern New South Wales. 

 - pj^ KGARDING Collyriocincla parvissima and C. cerviniventris only as climatic lornis or 

 X. JL. races of C. rufigaster, which vary in size and colour according to their distribution and 

 environment, it will be seen from the above synonymy that I have united them with the present 

 species. Knowing that many will differ from this view at the present time, when every slight 

 variation from the common type, as a rule, receives specific or subspecific recognition, I have 

 pointed out the difference in these races, and kept the remarks on each separate from those on 

 the typical species, C. rufigaster. 



The range of Collyriocincla rufigaster, Gould, e.xtends throughout the greater portion of 

 the coastal brushes of Eastern Queensland and North-eastern New South Wales. Mr. George 

 Masters met with it at Wide Bay; and Mr. J. .\. Thorpe informs me that he found it common 

 in the Richmond River District. Mr. R. Grant has also procured specimens in the ]5ellinger River 

 District, the southern limit of its known range. It is fairly plentiful in the scrubs at the head of 

 the Clarence River, where I observed it in November, i8g8. .\t that time it was usually met with 

 in pairs, each keeping to a separate part of the creek or scrub in which their nest was built. 



The note of this species is very different from the rich and jiielodious notes of the 

 Harmonious or Grey Shrike-Thrush, also heard in the same locality, consisting of a clear 

 whistle, repeated three times, and again immediately uttered in a different key. Like C. 

 harmonica, and other members of this genus, its food consists principally of various kinds of 

 insects and their larvjE. 



Mr. George Savidge writes: — "Collyriocincla rufigaster is a resident species in the Upper 

 Clarence District, and may be observed in about the same numbers all the year round. Its 

 call in winter is different from the note uttered in spring, but I have never known it to possess 

 any ventriloquial powers, or imitate the notes of any other species. It is, as you know, not 

 uncommon in the scrub close to my house, but I have never seen it in open forest lands. These 

 birds commence to build in September, and both se-xes assist in the task of nidifiration, but I 

 cannot say if the duty of incubation is also shared." 



The nest is a deep cup-shaped structure, outwardly formed of a thick layer of dead and 

 green leaves, bound round and held together with long pliant stems of climbing plants, inter- 

 mingled with a small quantity of cobweb and the silky-green outer covering of spiders' cocoons; 

 internally it is neatly lined with thin pliant stems and wiry rootlets. Unlike the nest of 



