222 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



Sp. 124. COLLURICINCLA RUFIVENTRIS, Gould. 



Buff-bellied Shrike-Thrush. 



Colluricincla rufiventris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part viii. p. 164. 

 God-de-lung, Aborigines of Western Australia. 

 Thrush of the Colonists. 



Colluricincla rufiventris, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii. 

 pi. 75. 



This species is about the size of the Colluricincla harmonica, 

 for which at a first glance it might be mistaken, but from 

 which on comparison it will be found to difler in the following 

 particulars : — the whole of the upper surface is pure grey 

 instead of brown ; the abdomen and under tail-coverts are 

 deep buff instead of greyish white ; and the lores are much 

 more distinctly marked with white. It is a native of Western 

 Australia, where it is to be found in all thickly-wooded places, 

 feeding as much on the ground as upon the trees and scrubs. 



It breeds in the latter part of September and the beginning 

 of October, and the nest, which is generally placed in the 

 hollow part of a high tree, is formed of dried strips of gum- 

 tree bark very closely packed ; it is deep, and is sometimes 

 lined with soft grasses. The eggs, which are two or three in 

 number, are of a beautiful bluish or pearly white, with large 

 blotches of reddish olive-brown and dark grey, the latter 

 appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell ; the medium 

 length of the eggs is one inch and one line, by ten lines in 

 breadth. 



Gilbert mentions that upon two occasions he found the 

 eggs of this bird in old nests of Pomaforhinus super ciliosus. 



The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects, 

 principally of the coleopterous order, and seeds. 



Lores greyish white ; crown of the head, and all the upper 

 surface deep grey, slightly tinged with olive ; primaries and 

 tail dark brown, margined with brownish grey ; throat and 

 under surface darkish grey, passing into buff on the vent and 



