218 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



not, like them, shake the tail. Its voice is peculiarly soft 

 and mournful, and its call consists of a single note four times 

 repeated with rather lengthened intervals ; at other times it 

 utters a somewhat pleasing and lengthened song; "but," 

 says Gilbert, " I never heard it emit that sharp terminating 

 note, resembling the smack of a whip, which concludes the 

 song of all the other species of the genus." 



The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects 

 and seeds of various kinds. 



It appears to breed during the months of December, 

 January, and February ; for the ovarium of a female killed on 

 the third of the last-mentioned month contained eggs very 

 fully developed, and, from the bare state of the breast, it 

 appeared to have been already engaged in the task of in- 

 cubation. 



All the upper surface brown ; under surface brownish white, 

 with a very faint stripe of brown down the centre of each 

 feather ; irides light brown ; bill and feet black. 



Sp. 122. PACHYCEPHALA OLIVACEA, Vig. and Horsf. 



Olivaceous Thickhead. 



Pachycephala olivacea, Vig. aud Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 241. 

 Native Thrush of the Tasmanians. 



Pachycephala olivacea, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii. 

 pi. 73. 



This species, the largest of the genus yet discovered, is a 

 native of Tasmania, where it inhabits forests and thick- 

 scrubby situations, and is very generally dispersed over the 

 island from north to south ; I observed it also on Elinders 

 Island in Bass's Straits, but no instance has come under my 

 notice of its occurrence on the continent of Australia. It is 

 rather recluse in its habits ; and were it not for its oft-repeated, 

 loud, sharp, liquid, whistling note, its presence would not 

 always be detected. I usually met with it in the thickest 



