PLATE "V. 
CLIMACTERIS RUFA {Gould). 
R UFO US TREE- CREEPER. 
IF it were not for the rufous tint pervading all the colouring of this bird, it might easily be 
mistaken for Climacteris Scandens, to which it bears a great resemblance as regards shape 
and contour. 
It is very common in Western Australia, especially in the forests of Eucalypti, upon which 
trees it seeks for insects, ascending the smooth bark with the greatest ease. It is also, however 
often to be seen on the ground searching for ants and their larvai. 
When disturbed it utters a shrill and piercing cry, which sounds most weird and strange in 
the still and silent forest. 
During the breeding season it constructs, far down in the hollow of a dead branch, a nest 
of soft grasses, lined with down, in which three eggs are laid, of a pale salmon-colour, with blotches 
of reddish-brown thickly distributed over the surface. 
The male has the crown of the head, all the upper surface and wings, dark brown ; tail, 
pale brown ; line over the eyes, lores, ear-coverts, throat and under surface of the shoulder, rust- 
brown ; chest, rufous-brown, each feather with a stripe of buffv-white, bounded on each side with a 
line of black, down the centre ; the remainder of the under surface deep rust-red, with a line of 
white down the centre of each feather, this line being lost, however, on the vent and flanks ; irides r 
dark brown ; bill and feet, blackish-brown. 
Total length, 6 inches ; bill, -| inch ; wing, 3 J inches ; tail, 2| inches ; tarsi, % inch. 
Habitat : Western Australia. 
CLIMACTERIS ERYTHROPS (Gould). 
REDE YEBRO WED TREE-CREEPER. 
ri^HE most remarkable feet connected with this species is the reversion, in its case, of the general 
law by which the male has a more beautiful plumage than the female. The same peculiarity 
is present to a very small extent in both Climacteris Scandens and Climacteris Rufa, though scarcely 
noticeable. 
Gould first discovered it on the low grassy hills near the Liverpool range, but it is also to 
be found in other parts of the colony. The habits are very much the same as those of Climacteris 
Leucophoea. 
The male has the crown of the head blackish-brown, each feather margined with greyish- 
brown; lores, and a circle surrounding the eye, reddish-chestnut; back, brown; sides of the neck a id 
lower part of the back, grey ; two centre tail feathers grey, the remainder blackish-brown, ti] id 
