6 4



Mr. R. Phiixipps,



that, if one penetrated deep enough into the interior of the con¬

tinent (Australia), they would be found to be common enough.

Be this as it may, one point strikes the ordinary man—that, how¬

ever common it may or may not be, our would-be teachers have

not yet settled among themselves whether the species is to be

permitted to have any sexual difference in plumage or not.


Volume XIII. of the British Museum Catalogue of Birds

gives, amongst other details:— Adult ?nale —“Lores, a narrow

eyebrow, feathers below the eye, and fore part of cheeks scarlet ;

throat and under surface of body black, the chin and upper

throat with scarlet-tipped feathers; centre of fore-neck and chest

also scarlet; sides of the breast and abdomen black, spotted with

white.” Adult female —“ Similar to the male, but with only the

lores and the feathers above the eye scarlet; no red on the

cheeks or throat; the latter, as well as the fore-neck, black,

spotted with white ; the whole of the under surface browner

below and more plentifully spotted with white; only a tinge of

scarlet on the breast.” “ The males differ from each other in the

amount of scarlet, which sometimes extends over the whole of

the throat and down the entire breast.”


This volume was published in 1890, and allows the male to

wear a more brilliantly-coloured waistcoat and necktie and more

paint on his cheek than his mate; but eleven years later this

privilege was cancelled, and—of all men—by no less favoured a

person than the man on the spot. In 1901 there appeared

Campbell’s Nests aud Eggs of Australian Birds which, while

dealiug primarily with the nests and eggs, often gives additional

particulars of interest and importance. At page 4S2, Mr. G. A.

Keartland, the ornithological collector of the Horn Expedition

(1894) is quoted without comment as follows :—“Although there

is no sexual difference in plumage, they vary with age. The

scarlet patch, so conspicuous on the breast of adults, is almost or

entirely absent on the young ones, and the rich black on the

under parts of the mature birds is also replaced by a smoky black

on the young.” Here we have the positive statement—“ there is

no sexual difference in plumage.”


Up to as recently as last April, it would seem that the wise

ones of the earth were still in uncertainty and content to remain



