xxxviii 
INTRODUCTION. 
admeasurements being precisely the same ; but the bird from New South Wales has a lighter coloured bill, and the 
whole of the under surface washed with deep rufous. 
The locality of the bird described by me in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, Part IV. p. 6, as CoHuri- 
cinclafusca, being still unknown, that species has not been included. 
Genus Falcunculus, Vieill. 
The two species of this genus are not only strictly Austrahan, but are confined to the southern parts of the 
country ; the F. frontatus inhabiting New South Wales and South Austraha, and the F. leucogaster Western 
Austraha. When attacked by their natural enemies or by man, both species defend themselves with their 
powerful bill and claws with the utmost fury ; they also by the same means readily tear off pieces of rotten wood 
and the thin scaly bark of the Eucalypti in search of insects. The branches of trees are their usual place of resort, 
and in many of their actions and habits they closely resemble the Tits of Europe and India (genus Parus), while 
they also assimilate to the Pacliycephalce. They build a round, cup-shaped nest. 
125. Falcunculus frontatus ............. Vol. II. PI. 79. 
126. Falcunculus leucogaster, Gould . . . ... . . . . . Vol. II. PL 80. 
Mr. Gilbert states that while staying in the Toodyay district of Western Australia in the month of October, he 
found the nest of this species among the topmost and weakest perpendicular branches of a Eucalyptus, at a height 
of at least fifty feet : it was of a deep cup-shaped form, composed of the stringy bark of the gum-tree, and lined 
with fine grasses, the whole matted together externally with cobwebs ; the eggs, which are three or four in number, 
are of a glossy white with numerous minute speckles of dark olive most thickly disposed at the larger end ; they 
are seven-eighths of an inch long by five-eighths of an inch in breadth. He adds, that under ordinary 
circumstances it is a somewhat shy bird, but when breeding becomes bold and familiar ; as an evidence of which 
he adduces the fact that a flock of sheep were driven every night beneath the tree upon which the nest was being 
constructed without giving the least alarm to the birds. 
Genus Oreoica, Gould. 
Generic characters. 
Bill shorter than the head, stout, compressed laterally, and notched at the tip ; culmen bent gradually downwards 
from the base ; lower mandible nearly as stout as the upper ; nostrils basal, round, and nearly covered with very 
fine short hair-like feathers directed forwards, among which are intermingled a few long fine hairs ; wings rather 
long, the first quill short, the third the longest ; tertiaries very long, and nearly equalling the primaries ; tail short 
and very slightly rounded ; tarsi moderately long and stout, entire posteriorly, and defended anteriorly with hard 
scuta ; feet adapted for the ground ; toes very short, particularly the hind one, inner toe rather shorter than the 
outer; c/aw5 short, and nearly straight. . . . . 
The only species known of this form is strictly Australian, and is a sprightly animated bird frequenting the 
sterile districts studded with large trees, scrubs, and open glades, where it hops about on the ground in search of 
insects. Notwithstanding the singularly lengthened form of its scapularies and its terrestrial habits, it appears to 
me to belong to the same type of form as the Pacliycephalce ; its loud piping note and mode of nidification also 
favours this opinion. It lays three or four eggs, in a round, cup-shaped nest, placed either in a grass tree 
(^XantJiorrhcea^ or in a hole or stump of a decayed upright tree. 
127. Oreoica gutturahs . Vol. II. PI. 81. 
Genus DicRURUs, Vieill. 
A genus of which many species inhabit India and Africa, but of which only one has yet been found in Australia. 
128. Dicrurus bracteatus, Gould . . . . . . . . . . . . Vol. II. PI. 82. 
