28 PACHYCEPUALINiE. 



Pachycephala glaucura. 



GEET-TAILED THICKHEAD. 



Pachycephala glaucura, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1845, p. 19; id., Bds. Austr., fol.. Vol. II., pi. 65 

 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr, Vol. I., p. 209 (1865); Gadow, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 

 VIII., p. 194 (1883); Sharpe, Hand-1, Bds., Vol. IV., p. .306, (1903). 



Adult male — Similar to the adult male of Pachycephala occidentalis, Ramsay, but having 

 a shorter bill, the quills externally margined with grey, the tail entirely grey, and the under tail-coverts 

 white slightly tinged with yellou: Total length 7 inches, wing 4i t<^il S'S, bill 0-Jf., tarsus 0'9. 



Adult female — General colour above ashy-brotvn ; upper wing-coverts like the back, the greater 

 series paler on the apical portion of their outer webs ; quills dark brown externally margined with 

 ashy-brown, and which gradually passes into ashy-white on the edges of the outermost primaries; 

 forehead and crown of the head ashy-brown, of a slightly darker shade than the back; a line of feathers 

 below the eye and the ear-coverts ashy-brown, the latter having whitish shaft-lines; throat dull greyish- 

 white, indistinctly mottled with pale brotvn ; upper portion and sides of the throat pale ashy-brown ; 

 remainder of the under surface dull ashy-ivhite washed with fidvous : under tail coverts white. 



Distribution — Tasmania, and some of the larger islands of Bass Strait. 



/~|^HE Grey-tailed Thickhead is the only representative of the genus Pachycephala inhabiting 

 -L Tasmania, of which the adult male is distinguished bv having a yellow breast. Although 

 found on some of the larger intervening islands of Bass Strait, it is remarkable that in colour it 

 more closely approaches the e.xtreme western species F. occidentalis, than it does its ally F. 

 gutturalis, which is common on the neighbouring continental mainland. From both of this 

 species, however, P. glaucura may be distinguished by its distinctly shorter bill. Typically the 

 tail feathers, too, are of a uniform grey, but among some adult males in the Australian Museum 

 collection, obtained by Mr. K. Broadbent in Tasmania, two of them except on the lateral feathers 

 show traces more or less of an indistinct subterminal blackish-brown band. 



From Tasmania Dr. Lonsdale Holden writes me : — " The Grey-tailed Thickhead is to be 

 found both in the damp and the dry regions of Tasmania, but I think it is more conniion in the 

 latter. 1 used to suppose the gaudy male alone uttered the call of " twee-twee-too-it," or " see 

 me do it," but I had lately a long and close observation of a bird in the female dress so calling, 

 and that was in the breeding season. It is curious how seldom one detects the male of this 

 species, he is generally high up amongst the foliage. The nest is sometimes built in high grass, 

 and I have seen it twelve feet aloft in a native currant tree; it is neatly lined with fine hay, 

 and the eggs are pointed at both ends. I have known the hen to sit so close as to require 

 pushing before she would leave her eggs, though they were fresh, and to return to sit in the 

 empty nest while I was still beside it. But the hen of this species is not generally shy, and will 

 let you come quite close to her while she flies from tree to tree, or tree to ground, clinging to the 

 stem like a Strong-billed Honeyeater does. The Thickheads in the breeding season are decidedly 

 among our noisiest birds." 



A nest of this species received from Mr. J. Gabriel taken on Flinders Island, Bass Strait, 

 in November 1893, is a shallow cup-shaped structure, the walls of it being thick and the 

 rim nicely rounded. Externally it is formed principally of dead leaves and skeletons of leaves, 

 intermingled with narrow strips of bark, the long pliant stems of a climbing plant, and a small 

 quantity of spider's webs ; inside it is lined entirely with thin dried plant stems and wiry rootlets. 

 It measures four inches and a half in external diameter by three inches in depth ; internal diameter 

 two inches and three-quarters, depth two inches. 



