358 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



brown ; bill blackish brown ; legs dark brown ; irides straw- 

 yellow. 



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



Sp.215. SERICORNIS OSCULANS, Gould. 



Allied Sertcornis. » 



Sericomis osculans, Gould in Proc. of Zool. See, part xv. p. 3. 



Sericornis osculans, Grould, Birds of Australia, fol., voL iii. pi. 48. 



The Sericornis osculans inhabits South Australia, where it 

 frequents underwoods, scrubby places, and the bottoms of dry 

 water-courses ; it is naturally shy and retiring in its habits, 

 and evades pursuit by creeping beneath the herbage and 

 making its exit on the other side. It is nearly allied to the 

 S. frontalis and S. hiimilis; but differs from the former in 

 having at all times numerous longitudinal blotches of black 

 on the throat, and from the latter in these spots being much 

 more distinct. I have seen specimens in which the yellow 

 tint which pervades the centre of the abdomen has given place 

 to grey or greyish white. 



The sexes present the usual characteristic of the genus, in 

 the absence of any black mark on the lores of the female, 

 which are similar to the other parts of the body. 



All the upper surface, wings, and tail dark brown, all but 

 the two centre feathers of the latter crossed by an obscure 

 band of black near the extremity ; spurious wing-feathers 

 black, margined with white ; lores black, above which on 

 each a patch of white, continued in a fine line over the eye ; 

 throat and centre of the abdomen greyish white in some and 

 yellowish white in others, marked with a few oblong black 

 spots on the throat. 



The female is somewhat smaller in size, and has the lores 

 brown instead of black. 



Total length 4^ inches ; bill | ; wing 2J ; tail 2 ; tarsi |. 



