220 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
olivaceous on the upper-surface and larger (/. r. melvillensis Mathews from Melville 
Island, named on account of its lighter upper coloration may later be reinstated) ; 
M. r. assimilis Masters from North Queensland, with darker and more rufous 
upper-surface and also smaller size ; MW. 7. dwperryii Lesson and Garnot from Dorey, 
New Guinea, may be used for the Arfak Peninsula and Dutch New Guinea birds, 
unless the latter be separated on account of their more olive coloration, but 
Rothschild and Hartert, twenty years ago, also included the Moluccan and Bismarck 
Archipelago, etc., birds as conspecific, recognising five additional subspecies, but 
two species appear to have been confused, and more study is required to determine 
accurately the extra-limital forms. 
Genus LEIPOA. 
Leipoa Gould, Birds Austr., pt. 1., Dec. lst, 1840. Type (by monotypy): Letpoa ocellata 
Gould. 
Large Galline birds with very small heads and bills, short full crest, long rounded 
wings, long rounded tail, strong legs and feet. The bill is short, shorter even than 
head, the culmen ridge basally flattened, the tip forming a dertrum somewhat 
deflected and comparatively delicate ; the nasal groove large, the nasal apertures 
strongly operculate, rather linear and pervious ; the under mandible is flattened, 
a little spoon shaped, the mandibular rami very short and more or less feathered 
towards their bases, the interramal space feathered ; there is a naked space round 
the eyes. The wing is very rounded, the feathers very stout and stiff, the first 
primary long but shorter than the sixth, which is less than the second, third, fourth 
and fifth little longer, the fifth generally the longest ; the secondaries are very long, 
almost as long as the longest primaries. The tail is very long, more than half the 
length of the wing, consisting of sixteen broad feathers, rounded in shape, the tail- 
coverts very long, both upper and under almost reaching to the end of the tail. 
The legs are very strong, the tarsus a little more than one-fifth the length of the 
wing, the tarsal covering in front being a double row of large hexagonal scutes, the 
remainder coarsely reticulated ; the toes rather short, the middle toe about half 
the length of the tarsus, the outer and inner shorter and subequal, the hind-toe long 
and straight, about half the length of the middle toe; claws very long and little 
curved. 
Coloration banded and ocellated above, head grey, breast with black stripes, 
under-surface otherwise white to pale buff. Nestling mottled rufous-brown. 
151. Leipoa ocellataa—_MALLEE FOWL. 
Gould, Vol. V., pl. 78 (pt. 1.), Dec. Ist, 1840. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 1, pl. 7, Oct. 31st, 1910. 
Leipoa ocellata Gould, Birds Austr., pt. 1., Dec. Ist, 1840: Swan River, Western Australia. 
Leipoa ocellata rosine Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 177, Jan. 31st, 1912: South 
Australia. 
DIsTRIBUTION.—New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, South and mid-West Australia. 
Adult male—General colour above grey and rufous-brown, barred on the wings 
and tail with black and white, which gives the bird a banded appearance ; head 
grey, with dark lanceolate feathers tipped with whitish on the middle of the crown, 
which imparts a more or less streaked appearance ; feathers of the hind-neck lead- 
grey, some of them margined with rufous-brown ; the back covered with silky or 
down-like feathers also grey with paler tips ; mantle grey barred with black, white, 
and rufous-brown, as also the scapulars, median and greater wing-coverts ; sides 
of neck and lesser wing-coverts ashy-grey, the latter fringed with paler edgings and 
some of the outer ones showing dark shaft-streaks ; primary-coverts pale brown 
