THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 103 



Victoria. It belongs to the present species, C alamanthus albiloris, 

 but the loral patch, eye-brow, and hne of feathers below the eye 

 are not so well defined as in the type, and are of a dull white.] 



Amytis modesta, sp. nov. 



Ainytis textilis (nee Quoy and Gaim.), Gould, Birds Aust., 

 fob, vol. iii., pi. 28 (1848). 



Amytis textilis, North, Rep. Horn. Sci. Exped. — Zoo!., p. 79 

 (1896), part. 



Adult male. — Like tlie adult male of A. textilis, Quoy and 

 Gaimard, but distinguished from that species in having the head 

 and upper parts of a much paler brown, the line extending from 

 the nostril above the anterior portion of the eye of a very pale 

 rust-red, the throat whitish ; remainder of the under surface pale 

 isabelline, becoming slightly darker on the sides of the neck and 

 breast, the former indistinctly streaked with white ; sides of the 

 abdomen, flanks, thighs, and under tail coverts pale isabelline- 

 brown. The bill, too, is deeper in shape and not so pointed at 

 the tip as in that of -4. textilis. Total length, 6.5 inches; wing, 

 2.55 ; tail, 3.2 ; bill 0.42, depth at nostril 0.22, breadth at 

 nostril o 2 ; tarsus, o 95. 



Hab. — Central Australia, South Australia, New South Wales. 



Type. — In the Australian Museum. 



Mr. Keartland has always contended that some of the birds 

 brought back by the Horn Scientific Expedition from Central 

 Australia, and regarded by me as the immature female of Ainytis 

 textilis, belonged to a distinct species. In support of his opinion 

 he has since sent me several skins, and among them the adult 

 male described above, which was obtained near Meerenie Bhiff, 

 Central Australia. This specimen agrees fairly well with Gould's 

 figures of Amytis textilis, except that it has not any rust-red patch 

 on each side of the breast, but this is apparent in a female shot 

 at the nest. Others obtained in South Australia and Western 

 New South Wales show more or less indication of this rust-red 

 patch, the throat also being very pale isabelline, and which, to- 

 gether with the upper breast, is more distinctly streaked with 

 white. None, however, approach any way near in depth of colour 

 to what I regard as the true Amytis textilis of Quoy and Gaimard. 

 These authors, in the Atlas of the "Voyage of the Uranie," also 

 Lesson in his " Traite d'Ornithologie," represent A. textilis with 

 the under as well as the upper surface distinctly streaked with 

 white, while Gould figures the birds he procured on the plains 

 bordering the Lower Namoi River in New South Wales with the 

 under parts like those I propose to distinguish under the name 

 of Ainytis modesta. Eggs of the latter species received from 

 Mr. Keartland are not to be distinguished from those of A. 

 textilis, previously described by me in the Zoology of the Horn 

 Expedition. A set of two taken by Mr. C. E. Cowle near 

 lUamurta, Central Australia, are oval in form and of a reddish 



