234 



Family TURDID^. 

 Sub-Family TURBINE. 



Geocichla lunulata. 



Mountain thrusu. 



Turdnn lunulatua, Lath., Ind. Orn., Suppl., p. xlii., (1801). 



Oreocincla macrorJiyncha, Gould, Proc. Zoo). Soc, |S37, p. 145. 



Oreocincla lunulata, Gould, Bds, Austr., fol., V"ol. IV,, pi. 7 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 



Vol. T., p. 439 (1865). 

 Geocichla lunulata, Seeliohiii, Cat. Bds. Brit. .Mus., Vol. V., p. l.")5 (1881). 

 Geocichla macrorhyncha. Seebohm, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. V., p. 156 (1881). 



Adult male — General colour above olivehrojvn, each feather having a crescent-shaped black 

 mark at the tip, folloived by a pale tarvny subterminal band on the feathers of tlie head and hind- 

 neck, those of the lower back and rump having paler shaft-streaks ; upper iving-coverts dark brown, 

 broadly margined on their outer webs with olive-brown, and tipped with tawny-white ; quills broivn, 

 the secondaries broadly margined tvith olive-broivn on their outer webs, the primaries more narrowly 

 edged externally tvith a warmer shade of olive-brown; tail feathers olive-broivn, the lateral feathers 

 narrowly tipped with white; lores dull whitish; feathers on the sides of the neck white, slightly tinged 

 with ochraceous and tipped loith black; from the base of the lower mandible extends a more or less 

 well defined black cheek stripe; chin and throat white, some of the feathers on the lower throat having 

 small blackish-broivn spots at the tip ; remainder of the under surface white, tinged with ochraceous 

 on the fore-neck and upper portion of the breast, and tnost of the feathers having a crescent shaped 

 black marking at the tip; basal portion of the feathers on the sides of the upper breast olive-brown; 

 centre of the abdomen white; under tail-coverts ivhile, a few of the longer feathers having a spot of 

 blackish-brown at the tip ; hill dark brown, base of lotver mandible yellowish-brown; legs and feet 

 pale fleshy-brown ; iris blackish-broicn. Total length in the flesh 11-5 inches, wing 5-6, tail ^SS, 

 bill 105, tarsus ISo. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution. — New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, and some of the 

 islands of Bass Strait. 



^K N examination of a large series of the true Thrushes inhabiting Australia and Tasmania, 

 X. \. has induced me to follow Gould in uniting his Geocichla macrorhyncha with the present 

 species. The former species was described by Gould in the " Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society," in 1837, prior to his visit to Australia, the habitat being there stated as New Zealand. 

 In his "Synopsis of the Birds of Australia," it is given as New Zealand or Van Diemen's Land. 

 Subsequently, in his folio edition of the "Birds of .\ustralia," also in his "Handbook," after his 

 visits to Tasmania and Australia, where in both places he saw these birds in their favourite 

 resorts, he relegated his specific name of macrorhyncha to a synonym of Latham's older name 

 .lunulata. Tasmanian examples are slightly darker than typical Australian birds, but I have 

 specimens now before me, collected at Cambewarra, in the lilawarra District of New South 

 Wales, that are perfectly indistinguishable in any way from others collected in Tasmania by 

 Mr. Kendal Broadbent. I find in Australian specimens that the size and depth of colour of 

 the black crescentic body markings and the extent of the white tips to the lateral tail-feathers 

 are extremely variable, and so are the birds in size, even from the same locality. As a rule 

 the two outermost tail feathers are tipped with white, but two examples from Cambewarra, 

 apparently very old birds by their size and depth of colour, have only the outermost tail feather 



