304 TIMELIID.E. 



Sericornis maculata. 



STRIATED SCRUB-WREN. 

 Sericornis maculatus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1847. p. 2; id., Bds. Austr., fol, V^ol. Ill, pi. 51 



(18G9); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 301 (186.5). 

 Sericornis mnculata, Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VII, p. 307 (1883); id., lIand-1. Bds., 

 Vol. IV., p. 221 (1903). 



Adult m.\le — General colour above olive-hrown, becoming a clearer and brighter olive on the 

 rum]) and upper tail-coverts : upper tving-coverts like the back, the outer series of the median and 

 greater coverts black tipped with while; primary-coverts and basiard-wing feathers black, the latter 

 broadly margined nitli 1 1 -hit e on their apical portion; quills brown, the primaries edged with ashy- 

 vjhite on their outer webs, the secowlaries broadly margined irith olive-hrown ; tail olive-brown, 

 crossed by a sjibterminal blackish band on all but the two central feathers, the lateral feathers 

 margined with white at the tip of the inner iveb ; a narrow frontal band and a trinngidar-shaped 

 patch in front of the eye black; superciliary stripe and a small spot below the eye ivhite, the former 

 bordered above with a narrorv line of black feathers ; ear-coverts ashy-brown ; chin and cheeks white; 

 throat and fore-neck greyish-white ivith a blackish streak down the centre of each feather, the chest 

 similar but less distinctly marked and washed with yellow; breast and abdomen pale yellow; sides 

 of body olive-brown, the flanks and thighs slightly darker; under tail-coverts pale ydlotv, with short 

 indistinct broivnish streaks in the centre of some of the feathers. Total length 4"4 inches, wing 2-15, 

 tail i .9, bill 0^8, tarsus O'S. 



Adult female — Similar to the male, but having the lores dusky-bro7vn instead of black, and 

 the black streaks on the throat and fore-neck less pronounced and not e.ctending quite so loiv dotvn on 

 the chest. 



Distribution. — Western Australia, South .\ustralia, Kangaroo Island. 



a A HE Striated Scrub-Wren is an inhabitant of Western and South Australia, and some of 

 the adjacent islands. Although tolerably numerous in the former State, it is extremely 

 rare in South Australia. It does not occur in \'ictoria, New South Wales, and the interior of 

 the .\ustralian continent, as recorded by Dr. Ramsay." The eggs collected by the late Mr. 

 K. H. Bennett near Mossgiel in October, 1883, and at Mount Manara, in Western New 

 South Wales, on the gth September, 1885, and attributed by Dr. Ramsay to this species, 

 proved, on receipt of a skin obtained at the nest found at Mossgiel, to he those of Pyrrholamus 

 bruimetis. Collecting at King George's Sound, Western Australia, on behalf of the Trustees 

 of the Australian Museum, Mr. George Masters was successful in obtaining eighteen adult 

 specimens, also the nest and eggs of this species. Mr. Masters also procured two adult 

 specimens at Port Lincoln, South Australia, in September, 1865. From the South Australian 

 Museum, Adelaide, I have also received for e.xamination a specimen obtained by Dr. Angove 

 at Queenscliff, on Kangaroo Island, in igoi. 



Gould remarks of this species: — "The present bird, to which I have assigned the specific 

 term of maculatus, has always been a source of perplexity to me, from the circumstances of its 

 varying considerably in its markings; after mature consideration, however, I am inclined to 

 regard the specimens from Southern and Western Australia, and the north coast, as referrable 

 to one and the same species, each, however, possessing trivial differences by which it may be 

 known from where it was received. Specimens from the Houtman's Abrolhos are of a rather 

 smaller size, of a much greyer tint on the back, and have much darker coloured legs. I believe 

 that the bright yellow wash on the under surface of some individuals is characteristic of newly- 

 moulted birds." The series of birds now before me amply justifies Gould's remarks. Some 



• Tab. List. Austr. Bds., p. 9 (1888), 



t Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. i., p. 361 (1865). 



