INSESSORES. 359 



Sp.21C. SERICORNIS FRONTALIS. 



White-fronted Sericornis. 



Acanthiza frontalis, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol.xv. p. 226. 

 Sericornis parvulus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part v. p. 134. 



Sericornis frontalis, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. iii. pi. 49. 



This little bird inhabits the brushes, and those humid situa- 

 tions which are clothed with thick underwood, such as the sides 

 of creeks, gullies, &c. The locality in which it is most abundant 

 is the south-eastern part of Australia, where it is very nume- 

 rous in all the dense forests which stretch along the coast 

 between Sydney and Moreton Bay ; and 1 believe I may safely 

 state that its range does not extend westward of the 134th 

 degree of East longitude, beyond which a nearly-allied species 

 is found; the species, therefore, inosculate about Spencer's 

 and St. Vincent's Gulfs in South Australia. Like the other 

 members of the genus, this bird generally hops about the 

 bottoms of the brushes, selecting in preference the most 

 humid parts, where rotten wood and moss-covered stones 

 afford some peculiar species of insect food, upon which it is 

 destined to live. The present is one of the smallest species 

 of its form yet discovered, and was always a favourite with 

 me ; for in the inmost recesses of the forest the presence of 

 this little bird, hopping about from stone to stone in search 

 of its insect food, now and then broke the monotony of the 

 scene with its inward warbling strain. 



The sexes present so little difference in colour that they 

 cannot be distinguished with certainty ; the female, however, 

 is somewhat smaller than the male. The young birds diifer 

 from the adult in having a few faint spots on the throat, which 

 are entirely lost as they advance in age. 



The nest of this species is made of leaves, moss, and fibrous 

 roots, and lined with feathers ; it is sometimes placed under 

 the shelving of a bank, and at others at the foot of a tuft of 



