Order Passeri formes, Family Dicaeidae, Gemis Pardalotiuus. 



white, and the outer webs near the base margined with red- 

 dish brown; upper wing coverts black, stippled on the carpus 

 with dull yellow, spurious wing, black tipped with bright ver- 

 milion. 



Tail — Black, the inner webs tipped with white, the spots 

 becoming larger from the centre outwards. 



Iris — Brown. 



Bill— Black. . . 



Legs and feet — Greyish Brown. 



Total length (of skin) 92 m.m. 



Wing — 65 m.m. 



Tail— 32 m.m. 



Culmen — 7 m.m. 



The measurements are the average of seven specimens, 

 four males, and three females. The female, differs from the 

 male only in the colour of the bill, which has the base of the 

 lower mandible light horn colour, and the rest of the bill of a 

 less deep black than in the male. Specimens from various 

 parts of South Australia do not differ in colour, except one 

 from Glen Ferdinand, Musgrave Banges, which is lighter 

 coloured in all its markings. 



Distribution — The whole of South Australia. 



Habits — This bird is an inhabitant of the gum trees, it is 

 never found in parts of the country where these do not grow. 



The larger gums are perhaps preferred, but they 

 are not uncommon in quite small mallee scrub. 

 Formerly they were common in the park lands about 

 the city, and even now an occasional bird my be heard in the 

 Botanic Park. As a rule they go about singly, but sometimes 

 in the breeding season a pair may be seen together searching 

 the leaves for food. They are not easily frightened, and if 

 one keeps still, will go on feeding within a few feet of one's 

 hand, hence their disappearance about the city, for their con- 

 fiding nature makes them an easy prey to the boy with a 

 shanghai. 



Flight — Straight and rapid. 



Food — Consists entirely of insects, which they gather 

 from the leaves of the gum trees, they assist greatly in keep- 

 ing the gum leaves free of scale. 



Song — Two or three notes, monotonously repeated resem- 

 bling the words Whit-i-chute, by which name they are known 

 in some parts of Australia, 



