548 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



the country, for it was in the Cape York Peninsula that it 

 was obtained ; not, however, by Mr. Macgilhvray, who, I be- 

 lieve, mistook it for the common species, and did not procure 

 examples; which is much to be regretted, since the bird is so 

 extremely rare in our collections. 



The Tropidorhynchus buceroides differs very considerably 

 from the T. corniculatus and every other Australian species 

 in its much larger size, in the great elevation of the culmen, 

 and in the crown of the head being clothed with feathers. 



Feathers of the crown and nape brown, with pale greyish 

 or silvery edges ; all the upper surface, wings, and tail light 

 brown ; feathers of the under surface lighter brown with a 

 silky lustre, those of the throat with darker centres; face 

 leaden-black ; bill black ; feet blackish brown. 



Total length 11 inches ; bill If ; wing 5 ; tail 4f , tarsi If. 



Sp. 336. TROPIDORHYNCHUS ARGENTICEPS, Gould. 

 Silvery-crowned Friar Bird. 



Tropidorhynchus argenticeps, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part vii. 



p. 144. 

 monachus, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 324, young 



female ? (nee Merops monachus, Lath.) 



Tropidorynchus argenticeps, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., 

 vol. iv. pi. 59. 



For the first knowledge of this species of Tropidorhpi- 

 chus, science is indebted to the late Mr. Bynoe, Surgeon 

 of Her Majesty's Surveying ship ' Beagle,' who, on my visit- 

 ing Sydney, placed his specimens at my disposal ; after my 

 return, other examples were sent to me by Sir George Grey. 



Bynoe's specimens were all obtained during the survey of 

 the north-west coast, a portion of Australia the natural pro- 

 ductions of which are but little known ; and Sir George Greys' 

 during his expedition into the interior, from the same coast. 



In size the Silvery-crowned Friar-bird is somewhat inferior 



