35G BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. 



with green moss, dried grasses, and fibrous roots, and is 

 warmly lined witli feathers. The eggs, which are three in 

 number and much elongated in form, vary considerably in 

 colour, the most constant tint being a clove- brown, freckled 

 over the larger end with dark umber-brown, frequently 

 assuming the form of a complete band or zone : their 

 medium length is one inch, and their breadth eight lines. 



Lores, circle around the eye, and the ear-coverts deep 

 black ; a conspicuous line of yellowish white above and for 

 some distance beyond the eye ; crown of the head, and all 

 the upper surface, secondaries, wing-coverts, and tail reddish 

 brown, becoming more rufous on the upper tail-coverts and 

 tail ; outer edges of the primaries olive ; spurious wing 

 blackish brown ; throat yellow ; chest and flanks olive-brown ; 

 centre of the abdomen white ; bill brownish black ; irides 

 reddish brown ; legs purplish flesh-colour, in some specimens 

 flesh- white. 



Total length 5^ inches ; bill f ; wing 2f ; tail 2f ; tarsi 1-g-. 



Sp. 214. SERICORNIS HUMILIS, Gould. 



SoMBRE-COLOURED SeRICORNIS. 

 Serico7'nis humilis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part v. p. 133. 



Sericomis humilis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii. pi. 47. • 



This species is very generally dispersed over Tasmania ; and 

 as I have found it on some of the islands in Bass's Straits, it 

 is not improbable that it may also extend its range to the 

 southern coast of the continent of Austraha. Ravines, deep 

 glens, water-courses covered with dense herbage, and thickly- 

 wooded copses are the situations congenial to its habits. 

 Although abundant and generally distributed, it is a bird that 

 is less seen, and one whose habits are less known than most 

 others inhabiting the island. In many of its actions it closely 

 resembles the Troglodytes Europcsus, particularly in its manner 



