163 



edge ; tail gray, obscurely barred with brown, and tipped with 

 buff. 



Total length 17 inches; bill, 1|; wing, 12| ; tail, 7^ ; tarsi, 1|. 



Considerably smaller, but closely allied to the Jerfalcon, Falco 

 Islandicus. 



Hab. Western Australia. 



PODARGUS BRACHYPTERUS Or MACRORHYNCHUS. Pod. TOStrO J)reE- 



grandi {ad magnitudinem corporis ratione habitd) et producto ; 

 colore corporis obscuro, et minute punctulato . 



Crown of the head and all the upper surface finely freckled gray 

 and brown, with a stripe of black down the centre of each feather, 

 the light colour predominating on the scapularies ; feathers between 

 the eyes and the nostrils chestnut-brown, sprinkled with black and 

 tipped with white ; shoulders and lesser wing-coverts deep reddish 

 brown ; some of the feathers tipped with a white spot, fi-eckled with 

 red in the centre ; greater coverts and secondaries mingled gray and 

 reddish brown, the former tipped like the lesser coverts ; primaries 

 reddish brown, regularly barred with bufFy- white on their outer webs, 

 and with interrupted tawny bands on their inner webs ; tail light- 

 brown, freckled with black and gray, and crossed by numerous irre- 

 gular, narrow% dark-brown bands, freckled with gray ; all the under 

 surface grayish white, each feather crossed by numerous fine and 

 irregular bars of tawny and with a stripe of brown down the centre, 

 the latter colour becoming chestnut and forming a semilunar mark 

 down each side of the neck ; thighs black ; irides light yellow ; bill 

 and feet brown. 



Total length 15 inches ; bill, 25 ; wing, 9 ; tail, 7 ; tarsi, \^. 



In its general appearance this bird closely resembles the Podargus 

 humeralis, but is even smaller in size than P. Cuvieri, while at the 

 same time the bill is fully equal in size to that of the former species ; 

 it also projects much farther from the face than in any other species 

 inhabiting Australia. 



Hab. Swan River, Western Australia. 



Malurus melanotus. Mai. vertice, guld, abdomine, humeris, cau- 

 dceque tectricibus lazulino-C(Bi-uleis ; loris, nuchd, vittd pectorali 

 et dorso imo nigris. 



Male. — Crown of the head, crescent- shaped mark on the back, 

 upper tail-coverts, throat and under surface rich metalUc lazuline 

 blue ; ear-coverts metallic verditer-blue ; lores, collar round the back 

 of the neck, line from the base of the lower mandible down the sides 

 of the neck, band across the breast and lower part of the back jet- 

 black ; wings brown, margined with pale green ; tail greenish blue, 

 tipped with grayish white ; irides, bill and feet black. 



Female. — Lores rufous; head and all the upper surface rufous 

 brown ; all the under surface brownish white ; tail bluish green, 

 tipped with grayish white ; bill rufous ; irides blackish brown ; feet 

 brown. 



Total length, 4| inches ; bill, | ; wing, 2 ; tail, 21 ; tarsi, |. 



This beautiful species may be distinguished from the Malurus 



