INSESSORES. 349 



very thick clothing and overhanging back-feathers, I conclude 

 that, like the members of the genus Basi/ornis, it is a fre- 

 quenter of the ground in dense and scrubby places — a 

 conjecture which I should be happy to have verified by 

 residents in New South Wales who may be favourably 

 situated for observing it. 



General plumage brown, inclining to rufous on the lower 

 part of the back, upper tail-coverts, and tail ; forehead, lores, 

 throat, and breast dark reddish buff, with a very narrow 

 crescent of dark brown at the tip of each feather ; centre of 

 the abdomen greyish brown, crossed by crescentic bands of 

 black ; flanks and vent brown, passing into deep rufous on 

 the under tail-coverts ; bill brown ; base of under mandible 

 fleshy brown ; legs and feet fleshy brown. 



Total length 6f inches ; bill f ; wing 2f ; tail 2f ; tarsi 1 J. 



Genus CISTICOLA, Kaup. 



These little birds are most perplexing, and the due eluci- 

 dation of the Australian members of this form can only be 

 effected by resident ornithologists ; to this subject I would 

 therefore direct the special attention of Mr. Ramsay of New 

 South Wales, Mr. White of South Australia, or any other 

 person favourably located for investigating them. A know- 

 ledge of the changes of the plumage, if any, of a single species 

 would be a key to the whole. By closely watching the birds 

 while breeding, obtaining the mated pairs, ascertaining the 

 sex of each by dissection, and by observing the young from 

 youth to maturity, the matter might easily be determined. 



Sp. 208. CISTICOLA MAGNA, Gould, 



Great Grass-Warbler. 

 Cysticola campestris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, pai"t xiii. p. 20. 



Cysticola magna, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iii. pi. 41. 

 This is one of the largest species of the group, and hence 



