CLIMACTERIS. 



51 



Climacteris superciliosa. 



WHITE-EYEBROWED TREE-CREEPER. 

 Climacteris superciliosa, Nortli, Ibis, 1895, p. 341 ; North and KeartI, Rep. Horn Sci. Exped. Cent. 

 Austr. Pt. II., Zool., p. 96, pi, 7 lower tig. (1896); Sharpe, Hand-!., Bds., Vol. IV., p. 357 

 (1903). 



Adult male — General colour above dull ^unhi'r-hrown ; tipper tail-coverts faint greyish-hrown; 

 upper wing-coverts and innermost secondaries slig/itly duller in colour titan the hack; primary-coverts 

 brown, blackish-brown towards the tips : quills broivn with blackish-brown bases, all but the three 

 outermost primaries and the three innermost secondaries crossed in the centre with a broad band of 

 rich buff, succeeded by a subterminal band of blackish-brown; tail feathers brown, crossed with a broad 

 suhterminal band of blackish-brown, except the central pair /chich has only an indistinct spot of 

 blackish -brown near the shaft; forehead dark greyisli-broivn becoming slightly briy/iter on the croivn 

 of the head; lores black; a broad stripe commencing at the nostril and extending in a less perfect line 

 above and behind the eye white; feathers below the eye and tlte ear-coverts greyish-black, streaked down 

 the centre ivifh white; chin ivhitish; throat and fore neck light greyisli-broivn ; breast greyish-brown, 

 (he apical half of each feather with a broad pure 7vhite stripe down the centre bordered on either side 

 with a line of black; abdomen and sides of the body buffy-brown, similarly but not quite so conspicuously 

 streaked as the breast; under tail-coverts buffy-wldte, with irregular blackish-broivn crossbars ; axillaries 

 and greater under wing-coverts delicate buff, the lesser coverts white mottled with hlackish-brown ; bill 

 black; legs and feet black; iris dark brown. Total length 5'7 inches, wing 3'5, tail 2-45, bill 5, 

 tarsus 073. 



Adult female — Resembles the male in colour but having the upper tail-coverts dark grey and 

 the tail feathers distinctly washed with grey; the white superciliary stripe is bordered above by a narroiver 

 line of rusty-red, and the feathers on t/ie centre and hirer part of the fore neck are dull ivhite, margined 

 on eitlier side with pale rusty-red. 



Distribution. — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Central Australia, 

 Western Australia. 

 (^tLTHOUGH the White-eyebrowed Tree-creeper was the last discovered species of the 

 J~ \~ j;enus, subsequent research has proxed it is also one of the most widely distributed, 

 its range, e.xcept in the coastal districts, extending from the eastern to the western sides of the 

 continent. Tlie late Mr. K. H. Bennett obtained a male and female of this species on Moolah 

 Station, New South Wales, in July 1883, and the Reference Collection also contains a female 

 procured in South-western Queensland. During the journey of the Horn Scientific Expedition 

 in Central Australia in 1894, Mr. G. A. Keartland obtained two males, one at Illara Creek, and 

 the other at Bagot's Creek. Dr. A. Chenery presented an adult male to the Australian Museum 

 obtained at Yudnapinna Station, forty-six miles from Port Augusta. From the Trustees of the 

 South Australian Museum, I have also received on loan, specimens procured by Dr. A. M. 

 Morgan and Dr. A. Chenery during a trip to the Gawler Ranges, in August 1902. Relative to 

 these specimens Dr. Morgan writes me : — " Climadevis siipenlliosa was seen from Nooning to 

 Yardea, where in the latter locality they give place to C. ritfa. They are fairly numerous, 

 but never more than a pair were obtained together. We did not see them in gum trees but 

 seem to confine themselves to the myall." I have also examined a pair obtained by Mr. Edwin 

 Ashby at Callion, Western Australia, and one from North-western \ictoria. Mr. Keartland 

 also obtained specimens near Lake Augusta, Western Australia, but they were abandoned 

 with the rest of the collection at Johanna Springs. 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett refers as follows to this species: — "This Tree-creeper is met 

 with throughout the timbered country, on Moolah Station, New South Wales, but is nowhere 



