26 PACHYCKPHALIN.E. 



the adult male of P. gnttiiralis in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, "'•= " basal wo- 

 thirds of the tail grey, apical third blackish-brown, tipped with grey " is not applicable to that 

 species but to the western form P. occidentalis. 



Moreover, Dr. Gadow writes, " I have copied Ramsay's description of P. occidcntalii, although 

 the specimens from Western Australia in the Museum do not agree with his diagnosis." 

 Canon Tristram commenting in "The Ibis"! on the Eighth \'olume of the Catalogue of Birds 

 in the British Museum refers to this passage and remarl<s: " We can only add, neither do our 

 own three from Western Australia." 



In a number of skins, however, in the .Vustralian and Macleay Aluseum collections from 

 Western Australia, the chief distinguishing characters pointed out by Dr. Ramsay in P. 

 occidentalis are constant in adult birds of both sexes. The wing-measurement of adult males 

 varies from 3-75 to 3'g5 inches, and one specimen has the gamboge-yellow of the under surface 

 equally rich in colour as the eastern species. Fully adult males of P. giiitiiralis, have the basal 

 portion of the tail-feathers always more or less washed with olive-green, and which in P. occidentalis 

 is of a uniform grey. Only semi-adult males of P. gutturalis are devoid of the olive-green wash 

 on the tail-feathers, but by the remainder of the plumage it is evident at a glance that they have 

 not arrived at maturity. The adult female of P. occidentalis is even more widely separated from 

 the adult female of P. gutturalis, than are the opposite sexes of these species. 



Two eggs taken near Albany, are indistinguishable from a common variety of those of 

 P. gutturalis. They are of a pale creamy-white ground colour, spotted and blotched around the 

 larger end with umber and blackish-brown and a few obsolete spots of dull violet-grey. Length 

 (A) 0'g4 X o'h5 inches; (B) 0-92 x 0-64 inches. 



Pachycephala melanura. 



BLACK-TAILED THICKHEAD. 

 Pachycephala melaimra, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1842, p. 134; id., Bds. Austr., fob. Vol. II., pi. 66 

 (1848); id. Hand-bk. Bds. Austr., Vol. I., p. 211 (186.5); Masters, Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S.W., 

 Vol. I., p. 49 (1877); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VIIL, p. 185, (1883); Sharpe, 

 Hand-1. Bds,, Vol. IV., p. 304 (1903). 

 Adult male — Like the adult male o/' Pachycephala gutturalis, Latham, but differs in being 

 riclier in colour, the band on the hind neck and the breast gamboge-yellow, tail feathers entirely black, 

 except a narroiv broicn edge at their tips, and having a larger bill. Total length 6'25 inches, wing 

 S-6, tail 3 75, bill 06. 



Adult female — "Head and neck slaty-grey: back, upper tail-coverts and the basal half of the tail 

 dark olive-green; apical half black tipped witli broicn, circle surrounding the eye light brown, throat dull 

 white freckled with grey; chest dark brown; the remainder of the under surface and under tail-coverts 

 deep yellow, lightly washed luith buff; basal half of tlie bill dark brown, becoming almost black toivards 

 the tip; legs and feet bluish lead-colour ; iris broion." — (Masters). 



Distribution — Northern Queensland and Islands of Torres Straits, Northern Territory of 

 South Australia, North-western Australia. 



/■ i^HE Black-tailed Thickhead is the northern and north-western representative oi Pachycephala 



-L gutturalis of Eastern Australia. It is remarkable that in the northernmost parts of the 



continent its ally in addition to its richer plumage is furthermore distinguished by having a 



larger bill, while in P. glaucura, inhabiting Tasmania and the islands of Bass Strait, the 



* Cat. Brds. Brit. Mus , Vol. VIII., p. 192. (1SS3). 

 t The Ibis, 1884, p. 398. ■ 



