INSESSORES. 397 



Genus PTENOEDUS, Cahanis. 



M. Cabanis has instituted the above genus for the bird 

 named by Messrs. Vigors and Horsfield Aiithus rufescens, and 

 placed by me with the Cindoramphi ; I admit the justice of 

 the separation, and therefore adopt his generic appellation. A 

 single species only has as yet been discovered in Australia, 

 and so far as I am aware the form does not exist in other 

 countries. 



Sp. 243. PTENOEDUS RUFESCENS. 



Rufous-tinted Cincloramphus. 



Anthus rufescens, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 230. 

 Megaluras rufescens, Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. i. p. 169, 



Megaluras, sp. 3. 

 Ptenoedus rufescens. Cab. Mus. Hein., Theil i. p. 39. 

 E-role-del, Aborigiues of the mountain districts of Western Australia. 

 Singing Lark of the Colonists. 



Cincloramphus rufescens, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. iii. 

 pi. 76. 



If Australia be not celebrated for its singing-birds, it has 

 still some few whose voices serve to enliven the monotony of 

 its scenery; and of these no one deserves greater attention 

 than the bird here described, which is a very sweet songster, 

 and whose note somewhat resembles, but is much inferior to 

 that of our own Skylark. With the exception of Tasmania, 

 where I believe it is never seen, it appears to be distributed 

 over all parts of Australia, specimens having been obtained in 

 every locality yet visited by Europeans. In New South Wales 

 and Western Australia it is strictly migratory, and only a 

 summer visitor, arriving in August and departing in February ; 

 on the other hand, I met with it on the sandhills at Holdfast 

 Bay, in South Austraha, in the month of July, the period of 

 winter : although not exclusively a terrestrial bird, it evinces 

 a great partiality to open grassy plains here and there studded 



