268 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



of the Malurus cyaneus, being minutely speckled with red on 

 a white ground j they are seven and a half lines long by five 

 and a half lines broad. 



The sexes are alike in colour. 



Crown of the head, all the upper surface and wings dark 

 fuscous brown, slightly tinged with olive ; two centre tail- 

 feathers brown ; the remainder white at the base, succeeded 

 by a broad band of deep blackish brown, round which is a 

 broad stripe of white, which entirely crosses the outer feathers, 

 but only the inner webs of the remainder, the tips pale 

 brown ; throat and chest grey ; abdomen and under tail- 

 coverts white; bill and feet deep blackish brown; irides 

 bright brownish red. 



Total length 3f inches ; bill \ ; wing 2 J ; tail If ; tarsi f . 



Sp. 157. GERYGONE CULICIVORA, Gould. 

 Western Gerygone. 



Psihqms culicivorus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part viii. p. 174. 

 War -ryle -bur -dung, Aborigines of the lowlands of Western Australia. 



Gerygone culicivorus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. ii. pi. 99. 



This species is plentifully dispersed over the colony of Swan 

 River in Western Australia, where it inhabits forests, scrubs, 

 and all situations where flowering trees abound, and Avhere it 

 is seen either in pairs or in small groups of four or five in 

 number. Its food consists wholly of aphides and other small 

 insects, which are captured on the wing or from off the 

 flowers ; it sometimes traverses the smaller branches, and 

 even the upright boles of trees, prying about and searching 

 for its prey with the most scrutinizing care. Its powers of 

 flight are rarely exerted for any other purpose than to convey 

 it from shrub to shrub, and for its little sallies in pursuit of 

 insects, much after the manner of the true Flycatchers. 



Its notes are very varied, being at one time a singing kind 



