274 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



opening like the eaves of a house. The eggs are three in 

 number, of a dull buff, marked with extremely fine freckles at 

 the larger end ; they are six and a half lines long by four and 

 a half lines broad. 



A narrow stripe of yellowish white passes from the bill over 

 each eye ; crown of the head brownish grey, passing into 

 olive at the back of the neck ; back, rump, and upper tail- 

 coverts olive, brightest on the latter ; ear-coverts and sides of 

 the face very pale reddish brown ; throat and chest white, 

 tinged with* olive, with a faint longitudinal mark of brown 

 down the centre of each feather, the remainder of the under 

 surface pale citron-yellow ; two centre tail-feathers brown ; 

 the remainder brown at the base, the middle being crossed 

 by a broad band of blackish brown, which is succeeded by a 

 spot of white on the inner webs, the tips pale brown ; feet 

 blackish brown ; irides pale straw-yellow ; bill varying from 

 fleshy white to ashy grey. 



Total length 3^ inches ; bill f ; wing 2 ; tail H ; tarsi \. 



Sp. 162. SMICRORNIS FLAVESCENS, Gould. 



Yellow-tinted Smicrornis. 

 Smia'ornis flavescens, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part x. p. 134. 



Smicrornis flavescens, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. ii. 

 pi. 104. 



This is the least of the Australian birds I have yet seen, 

 scarcely exceeding in size the smaller Humming-birds, It is 

 tolerably abundant on many parts of the northern coasts of 

 Australia, and particularly on the Cobourg Peninsula; it 

 inhabits most of the high trees in the neighbourhood of Port 

 Essington, keeping to their topmost branches, and there 

 seeking its insect food among the leaves, over which it creeps 

 and clings in every possible variety of position. From the 

 circumstance of its confining itself exclusively to the topmost 



