610 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



brown down each feather ; under tail-coverts white, crossed 

 near the tip with a spot of brown ; bill horn-colour at the 

 base; irides cream-colour ; eyelash light buff ; feet yellow. 



The female differs only in having the head of a darker tint 

 of brown. 



I possess a somewhat mutilated specimen of a Sittella, 

 which was given to me by Captain Sturt, but I am unaware 

 of the locality in which he obtained it. This bird, which I 

 feel assured is a new species, is very nearly allied to S. chry- 

 soptera, but differs from it in having a longer and more 

 upturned bill, the base of which is yellow, and a uniformly 

 coloured back and breast without apparently any trace of 

 the brown striae seen on the feathers of those parts in S. chry- 

 soptera ; in other respects, particularly in the chestnut coloured 

 band across the wings, it is very similar to that species. 

 If it should hereafter prove to be new, I would propose for it 

 the specific name of tenuirostris. 



Sp. 374. SITTELLA LEUCOCEPHALA, Gould. 



White-headed Sittella. 

 Sittella leucocephala, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part v. p. 153. 



Sittella leucocephala, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iv. pL 102. 



My collection contains several specimens of this species of 

 Sittella, two of which were received from the neighbourhood 

 of Moreton Bay ; another was procured during Dr. Leichardt's 

 overland expedition to Port Essington, Gilbert having killed 

 it near Peak-Range Camp on the 27th of January 1845 : the 

 latter differs from the former in the greater purity of the 

 white colouring of the head, and in the darker tint of the striae, 

 which run down the centre of each of the feathers on the breast ; 

 and it is possible that it may hereafter prove to be distinct. 



Head and neck pure white ; upper surface greyish brown 

 with darker centres ; under surface greyish white, with a 

 stripe of brownish black down the centre of each feather ; 

 wings dark brown, crossed by a band of pale rusty red ; tail 



