220 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



olivaceous on the upper-surface and larger (M. 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 ; M. r. duperryii 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. i., Dec. 1st, 1840. Type (by monotypy) : Leipoa ocettata 

 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 hah* 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 ocellata. MALLEE FOWL. 



Gould, Vol. V., pi. 78 (pt. i.). Dec. 1st, 1840. Mathews, Vol. I., pt. 1, pi. 7, Oct. 31st, 1910. 

 Leipoa ocellata Gould, Birds Austr., pt. i., Dec. 1st, 1840 : Swan River, Western Australia. 

 Leipoa ocettata rosince 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 ai.d 

 some of the outer ones showing dark shaft-streaks ; primary -co verts pale 



