^INSESSORES. 395 



for her nest, which is always on the gronnd, the male, like the 

 Skylark, frequently mounts in the air with a tremulous motion 

 of the wings, and after cheering her with his animated song, 

 descends again to the ground or skims off to a neighbouring 

 tree, and incessantly pours forth his voluble and not unpleas- 

 ing notes. 



I found it very abundant in all the Upper Hunter districts, 

 as well as in all the surrounding country, both to the north 

 and south : I killed numerous examples of both sexes, but 

 not one male with the throat and under surface black, like 

 specimens I have seen from Port Philip and South Australia, 

 and which I consider to be specifically distinct. 



The male has the entire plumage brown, each feather mar- 

 gined with brownish white ; a large patch of dark brown on 

 the centre of the abdomen ; bill, inside of the mouth and 

 tongue black ; irides hazel ; feet flesh-brown. 



The female, which is less than half the size of the male, is si- 

 milar in colour, but the feathers being more broadly margined 

 with brownish white gives her a paler hue than her mate ; the 

 under surface is also much lighter, and the patch in the centre 

 of the abdomen is much smaller. 



Sp. 242. CINCLORAMPHUS CANTILLANS, Gould. 



Black-breasted Cincloramphus. 



Cincloramphus cantatoris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part x. p. 135. 

 Ye-jul-lup, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia. 

 Sky-Lark of the Colonists. 



Cincloramphus cantillans, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii. 

 pi. 75. 



Specimens killed at Port Philip in South Australia and 

 others procured at Port Essiiigton are precisely similar ; but 

 they differ from C. cruralis in their smaller size and in their 

 darker colouring, a character which is confined to the male sex, 

 and which is, I believe, strictly a summer livery. At Swan 



