THE WATTLED TALEGALLA. 



PLATE XLIII. 



Class Aves. Order Gallinacese : belonging to the hen. 



Genus Tallegalla: M. Lessor. Catheturus Australis: 



Mr. Swainson. 



How far this bird's range may extend over Australia is not 

 yet satisfactorily ascertained ; it is known to inhabit various 

 parts of New South Wales, from Cape How on the south to 

 Moreton Bay on the north ; but the assaults of the cedar- 

 cutters and others who so frequently hunt through the brushes 

 of Illawarra and Maitland, having nearly extirpated it from 

 those localities, it is now most plentiful in the dense and little- 

 trodden brushes of the Manning and Clarence. 1 was at first, 

 (says Mr. Gould, from whose History of Birds this article has 

 been taken), led to believe that the country between the 

 mountain ranges and the coast constituted its sole habitat ; 

 but I was agreeably surprised to find it also an inhabitant of 

 the scrubby gullies and sides of the lower hills that branch 

 off from the great range into the interior. I procured speci- 

 mens on the Brezi range to the north of Liverpool Plains, 

 and ascertained that it was abundant in all the hills on either 

 side of the Namoi. 



" It is a gregarious bird, generally moving about in small 

 companies, much after the manner of the Gallinacece, and, 

 like some species of that tribe, is very shy and distrustful. 

 When disturbed it readily eludes pursuit by the facility with 

 which it runs through the tangled brush. If hard pressed, or 

 when rushed upon by its great enemy the native dog, the 

 whole company spring upon the lowermost bough of some 

 neighboring tree, and by a succession of leaps from branch to 

 branch ascend to the top, and either perch there or fly off to 

 another part of the brush. They are also in the habit of re- 

 sorting to the branches of trees as a shelter from the mid-day 



