EOPSALTItlA. 



185 



Eopsaltria chrysorrhous. 



GULDEN-RUM I'ED KOBIX. 

 EupsaUria australis, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. III., pi. 11 (l)>-tS); Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soc, 



1868, p. 38-t. 

 Eopsaltria chrysorrhous, Gould, Ann, .^- Mag. Nat. Hist, Ser. 4, Vol. IV., p. 109 (1869). 

 Eopsaltria mayuirostris, (Rams, et lit.), Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 4, Vol. IV., p. 109 

 (1869). 



Adult male Like Ihe adult male of Eop.saltkia australis, but devoid of the olive ivash on 



the breast and upper tail-coverts, these parts being of a clear rich yelloic. Total length U'To inches, 

 wing S-7, tail ..'-y, bill 0, tarsus l)y5. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly smaller and duller in colour. 

 Distribution.— 'Ea.sievn Queensland, Northern Coastal Districts of New South Wales. 

 /^(FV OULD separated this bird from the preceding species on account of its slightly larger 

 V-JT size, and in having the breast and rump of a jonquil-yellow. Its habitat is given as 

 the eastern portion of New South Wales and southern portion of Queensland. It will be found, 

 as a rule, in Australia, that the farther north in the coastal districts e.xamples of a species are 



obtained, the brighter they are in 

 colour. This only partially holds 

 good in the present instance, for 

 while typical examples of Eopsaltria 

 aiiitralis, obtained near Sydney, may 

 easily be distinguished from the 

 brighter coloured race inhabiting parts 

 of the Upper Richmond River, New 

 South Wales, and the brushes of the 

 Brisbane River, Queensland, some of 

 the latter are as brilliant in colour as 

 specimens obtained at Cardwell and 

 Cairns, in the north-eastern portion 

 of that State. One of the characters 

 pointed out by Gould,- that the birds 

 from Rockingham Bay — separated by 

 Dr. Ramsay under the MS. name of 

 E. niasnirostris — have conspicuously 

 larger bills and shorter wings than the 

 bird distinguished by himself under the 

 name of E. chrysorrhous, is not con- 

 stant. An adult male of the latter 

 from the Brisbane River, near where 

 Gould's types were obtained, measures 

 respectively: — wing 3-6 inches, bill 

 0-5 inches; of the type of E. magnirostris, wing 3-6 inches, bill 0-55. There is no question that 

 the birds from some parts of the northern rivers of New South Wales and Eastern Queensland, 

 lose the olive wash on the breast and upper tail-coverts, and have those parts of a richer and 

 clearer yellow. Dr. Gadow, however, in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum,"! 

 who has had the advantage of examining Gould's type of E. chrysorrhous, relegates this name 



NEST OF fiOLDEy-RUMHKD KOBIV. 



* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 4, Vol. iv.. p. log (1869). 

 t Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. viii., p. 177 (18S3). 



Rr 



