INSESSORES. 201 



observed are Moreton Bay and the Liverpool Range in New 

 South Wales, and the Cobourg Peninsula : it is likely that it 

 ranges over the whole of the intermediate country, but this 

 can only be determined by future research. Its smaller size, 

 the more attenuated form of its bill, and the great difference 

 in the colouring of the sexes, point out most clearly that it is 

 a member of the genus Campepha^a, and not of Graucahes, to 

 which it was first assigned. It is far less common in New 

 South Wales than it is at Port Essington, where Gilbert col- 

 lected the following particulars respecting it : — • 



" This bird is extremely shy and retiring in its habits. It 

 generally inhabits the topmost branches of the loftiest and 

 most thickly-foliaged trees growing in the immediate vicinity 

 of swamps. Its note is altogether different from that of any 

 other species of the genus, being a harsh, grating, buzzing 

 tone, repeated rather rapidly about a dozen times in succes- 

 sion, followed by a lengthened interval. It appears to be a 

 solitary species, as I never saw more than one at a time." 



The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects 

 of many kinds, but principally coleoptera. 



The adult male has the lores black; all the upper and 

 under surface, wing-coverts, edges of the primaries and 

 secondaries, basal three-fourths of the two central and the 

 tips of the outer tail-feathers deep blue-grey; primaries, 

 secondaries, and the other parts of the tail black ; irides dark 

 brown ; bill blackish brown ; legs and feet very dark greenish 

 grey. 



The female has the whole of the upper surface, wings, and 

 tail brown, the two latter edged with buff ; line over the eye 

 and all the under surface buff, the feathers of the side of the 

 neck, the breast, and the flanks with an arrow-head-shaped 

 mark of brown in the centre. 



The young male is bluish brown above ; wings and tail as 

 in the female ; under surface buff, crossed with numerous 

 transverse narrow irregular bars of black. 



