42 PASSERES 
Coloration. Sexes alike. Upper parts and median tail feathers earthy brown, sometimes 
washed with rufescent; wings greyish brown, primaries narrowly edged with whitish along 
outer web. Rectrices (except middle pair) dark brown, with long white tips. Lower surface of 
body dingy whitish, more or less strongly washed with greyish brown or rufescent brown, 
especially on sides and flanks. Under tail coverts ashy brown, tipped with whitish. Wing 81-86, 
tail 94-97, tarsus about 27, bill 13-15 mm, 
Geographical Distribution, Australia, 
Habits and Nidification. This bird inhabits the low scrubby trees and bushes which 
stud the hot plains of Australia. 
1. Sphenostoma cristatum Gould. 
Sphenostoma cristatum Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. Vol. 5, 1837, p. 150 (1838) («in Nova Cambria Australi, 
apud oram orientalem »). 
Fig. Gould, Birds Austr. Vol. 3, pl. 17. 
Hab. Queensland, New South Wales, Central-, West- and North-western Australia. 
6. GENUS PARISOMA SwalINson 1) 
Subgenus Parisoma Swainson (& ]. Richardson), Fauna Boreali- Amer. Vol. 2, p. 490 (183r) (sp. typ. : 
« Le Grignet » = P. subcaeruleum Vieillot). 
Parosoma L. Agassiz, Nomencl. Zool., Index, p. 274 (1846) (nom. emend.). 
Egithalopsis Heine. Journ. f. Ornith. Vol. 7, p. 431 (1859) (nom. emend.). 
Characters. Bill not unlike that of Parus, but laterally much compressed. Culmen 
distinctly ridged, gradually curved from base to tip, slightly uncinate; maxillary tomium with 
slight subterminal notch; gonys straight, in terminal third slightly ascending. Rictal bristles 
short, though rather stiff. Nostrils lateral, longitudinal, situated in a large, distinctly operculate 
groove; the slit-like nasal opening usually quite exposed, in P. fp. pluimbeum and P. pf. orientale, 
however, covered by the antrorse, latero-frontal plumules. Wing long, somewhat rounded; 
third, fourth and fifth primaries longest, second equal to eighth; first primary as long as, or rather 
longer than, half the second. Tail equal to, or rather longer than, wing, strongly rounded. Tarsus 
slender, somewhat longer than middle toe without claw; acrotarsium distinctly scutellate. 
Toes slender, with rather long, much compressed, acute claws; hallux about equal in length to 
outer toe. Wing 60-70, tail 58-73 mm. 
Coloration. Above grey or plumbeous; wings dusky, with whitish or pale greyish 
markings; tail blackish, the outer rectrices with long white tips. Under parts white or pale 
greyish, throat and foreneck often streaked with dusky; flanks and under tail coverts white, 
greyish, buff or light chestnut. Bill black. Sexes alike. 
1. In the « Tierreich » Livr. 18, p. 135, I also included in the above genus Sylvia lugens Ritippell, Pav tsoma jacksoni 
Sharpe and Syluia blanfordi Seebohm. Prof. Neumann, however, has pointed out to me that these three species were true 
Warblers (Sylvia). Reichenow (Vog. Afr. Vol. 3, p. 523) places, near Parisoma, his new genus Afatema (type : Parisoma 
olivascens Cassin) and Hypodes Cassin (type : Eopsaltyia cinerea Cassin). According to Prof. Neumann, neither of them is 
referable to the family of Paridae, the former being a large Alseonax, the latter most probably identi 
cal with Muscicapa 
lugens Hartlaub. = 
