ORTnoNTX. 317 



C3-erL-U.S OI^TIi02Sr"2"2^, Temminck. 



Orthonyx temmincki. 



SPINE-TAIL. 

 Orthonyx temmincki, Vig. &. Horsf., Trans. Linn. Soc, Vol. XV., p. 294 (1826). 

 Orthonyx spinicaudus, Temm., Planch. Col, Tom. IV., pis. 428, 429 (1827); Gould, Bds. Austr., 



fol, Vol. IV., pi. 99 (1848); id, Handbk. Bds. Austr, Vol. I., p. 607 (1865). 

 Orthonyx spinicmula, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VII., p. 329 (1883). 

 Orthonyx temmincki, Sharpe, Hand). Bds., Vol. IV., p. 2 (1903). 



Adult m.\le — General colour above fulvous-brown, the feathers of the mantle and upper back 

 having white shaft-lines and a broad longitudinal mark of black chiefly confined to their inner tvebs; 

 lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ochreoiis-rust colour; upper tving-coverts black, broadly 

 tipped with grey, the lesser coverts entirely grey on their outer webs; quills brown crossed near their 

 base with a greyish-white band, which is succeeded by a broad blackish-brown band, and a narrower 

 one of ashy fulvous, the latter on the outer webs only; the innermost secondaries blackish, broadly 

 margined on the apical portion of the outer web and lipped ivitli fulvous-brown; tail feathers reddish- 

 brown; crown of the head dark fulvous-brown with a rufesceut shade near the margins of the feathers 

 which are edged with black ; forehead, lores, sides of the face and cheeks dark ashy-yrey : all the under 

 surf ace tvhite ; sides of the neck and breast ashy-grey, the latter washed tvith fulvous-brown; on the 

 lower throat a crescentic black band, broken in the centre and widening out on the sides of the neck; 

 thighs and under tail-coverts ashy-grey, the tips of some of the longer coverts fulvous-brown; bill 

 black; legs and feet brownish-black; iris broivn. Total length in the flesh SS inches, wing S-7, tail 

 (to ends of central spines) -J'-i, bill 55, tarsus PS. 



Adult female — Like the male, but smaller, and having the throat and fore-neck orange-rufous, 

 and the sides of the breast distinctly washed ivith ochraceous-rust colotir. Total length in the flesh 

 7-7 inches, wing SS, tail (to ends of central spines) o-^, bill 0-55, tarsus 1-2. 



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

 /^AHE coastal brushes of New South Wales are the stronghold of the present species. 

 JL Numerous examples have been obtained by various collectors in the Tweed, Clarence, 

 Richmond, Macleay, and Belhnger River Districts, its range extending in similar country to 

 near the northern bank of the Hawkesbury River. Like many other coastal brush species, it 

 is not met with at all in the northern portions of the adjoining county of Cumberland, but 

 occurs again where a similar favourable vegetation flourishes at Port Hacking, Bulli, Wollon- 

 gong, Kiama, and as far south as the Shoalhaven River, where, in the latter neighbourhood, 

 Mr. J. .\. Thorpe procured several specimens. The nearest locality to Sydney I have met with 

 this species was at Ourimbah, where a small flock was observed scratching among the fallen 

 leaves near the side of a timber-getter's track, one of which, an adult female, I secured. Of a 

 large series of these birds in the .Australian Museum collection, the greater number was 

 procured by Mr. J. \. Thorpe on the Richmond River, and by Mr. Robt. Grant on the 

 Bellinger River. 



Stomachs of these birds I examined contained the remains of insects, principally beetles; 

 also fragments of shells of small land molluscs. 



Count Salvadori places the genus Orthonyx in the family Menuridae. 



A nest of this species in the Australian Museum collection is dome-shaped, the base and 

 sides being formed of thick twigs about six inches in length, and the nest proper— which has a 

 lateral entrance— entirely of mosses; the whole structure, with the exception of the opening, 

 being covered and well concealed with dead leaves. It measures exteriorly from back to front 

 of the base fourteen inches and a half, width nine inches and a half, height at the centre of the 



Aa25 



