232 PARDALOTID^. 



length in the ground. As will be seen from Mr. Savidge's notes, it is usually dome-shaped in 

 form with an entrance at the side, but sometimes cup-shaped or open at the top. 



The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, pure white, rounded-oval in form, the 

 shell being close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. A set of four taken by Mr. H. G. 

 Barnard, at Duaringa, on the Dawson River, Queensland, measures: — Length (A) o-66 x 0-55 

 inches; (B) 0-62 x 0-55 inches; (C) o-68 x 0-55 inches; (D) o'63 x 0-54 inches. A set of four 

 taken by Mr. G. Savidge, at Copmanhurst, on the Upper Clarence River, New South Wales, on 

 the 3rd October, 1897, measures:— Length (A) o-66 x 0-55 inches; (B) o-68 x 0-55 inches; (C) 

 07 X 0-55 inches; (D) 071 x 0-58 inches. It will be observed that the above eggs vary almost 

 the tenth of an inch in length, yet they are neary all of a uniform breadth. 



Young birds resemble the adults but are duller in colour, the crimson tips to the primary- 

 coverts are smaller, the head is dingy ashy-brown, not black, there is only a slight indication of 

 the broad white superciliary stripe, the throat is white tinged with yellow, and there are no yellow 

 stripes separating the white centre from the sides of the breast. Wing 2-2 inches. 



Pardalotus uropygialis. 



YELLOW-RUMPED DIAMOND- K1RI». 

 Pardalotus uropygialis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1839, p. 143; id., Bds. Austr., fol., Vol. II., pi. 41 

 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Aust, Vol. I., p. 166 (1865); Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. 

 X., p. 62 (1885). 

 Adult male— ZiA-e the adult male of Pardalotus melanocephalus, Gould, but having the upper 

 parts pale asliy-hrown, and the rump and all but the longest upper tail-coverts rich yellow; on the 

 under surface it is lighter on the sides of the neck, and the centre and sides of body. Total length SS 

 inches, wing 2-35, tail 1-2, bill 03, tarsus 0-7. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male. 



Distribution— 'biovth-vjestern Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Northern 

 Queensland. 



,^T^HE present species is chiefly an inhabitant of North-western Australia and the Northern 

 JL Territory of South Australia, its range extending as far east as the Burke District of 

 Northern Queensland. In several apparently adult specimens in the Australian Museum collection 

 obtained by Mr. E. J. Cairn and the late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower, near Derby, North-western 

 Australia, three of them marked females, have the feathers on the crown of the head blackish- 

 brown with faint ashy-brown tips. 



From Pardalotus mclanocephalus this species may be chiefly distinguished as pointed out 

 by Gould, by the bright yellow colouring of the rump. In Gould's figure in his "Birds of 

 Australia," this part is, however, erroneously coloured, and the figure altogether more closely 

 resembles the northern and brighter coloured form of Pardalotus melanocephalus inhabiting the 

 north-eastern portion of Queensland. In P. uropygialis the depth of colour of the orange streak 

 behind the nostril varies, in some specimens it is much richer than others. 



"This species," writes Dr. E. P. Ramsay, "is an inhabitant of the Gulf of Carpentaria 

 District. I have seen it from the Norman River, and also received the head, wings, and tail, 

 accompanied with eggs from Mr. William E. Armit, taken on the Etheridge River, where he 

 found it breeding in tunnels dug in the banks of creeks and water-courses, in company with 

 P. rubricatus. Eggs four in number for a sitting, length 07 x 0-55 inches, and like the eggs 

 of all the other species of a pearly-white colour.'"'- 



• Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, Vol. II., p. no (1877). 



