INSESSORES. S7 



purple ; inside of the mouth pale yellow ; tongue long, trans- 

 parent, and of the same colour with the inside of the mouth ; 

 irides brownish orange ; feet light brownish olive. 



Sp. 41. PODARGUS CUVIERI, Fi(/. and Horsf. 

 Cuvier's Podargus. 



Podargus Cuvieri, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 200. 

 More-pork of the residents in Tasmania. 



Podargus Cuvieri, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii. pi. 4. 



This species is readily distinguished from the Fodargus 

 humeralis by the bill being much less robust and of a more 

 adpressed form, while the culmen is sharp and elevated ; the 

 bird itself is also of a smaller size and altogether more slender 

 than its near ally. Tasmania, if not its exclusive habitat, is 

 certainly its great stronghold, it being there very numerous, 

 as evidenced by the frequency with which I encountered it 

 during my rambles over the country. I observed it both 

 among the thick branches of the Casuarmce and on the dead 

 limbs of the Eucalypti; it appeared however to evince a 

 greater partiality for the latter, which it closely resembles in 

 colour, and, from the position in which it rests, looks so like a 

 part of the branch itself as frequently to elude detection ; it 

 is generally seen in pairs sitting near each other, and fre- 

 quently on the same branch. Like the other members of the 

 genus, this bird is strictly nocturnal, and feeds almost exclu- 

 sively on insects, of which coleoptera form a great part. It 

 is frequently captured and kept in captivity in Tasmania, 

 where it excites attention more from the sluggishness of its 

 nature and the singular position it assumes than from any 

 other cause. It will pass the entire day in sleep on the back 

 of a chair or any other piece of furniture on which it can 

 perch. Like the owl, it is considered by superstitious people 

 a bird of ill omen, principally from the extraordinary sound of 



