EPTHI ANURA ALBIFRONS. 
White-fronted Epthianura. 
AcantUza albifrons, Jard. and Selb. 111. Orn., vol. ii. pi. 56. figs. 1 and 2. 
I first met with this species in a state of nature on the small islands in Bass’s Straits, where it had 
evidently been breeding, as I observed several old nests in the Barilla and other stunted hushes which 
clothe those isolated spots, particularly Chalky and Green Islands, immediately contiguous to Flinders. 
I did not observe it in Van Diemen’s Land or to the southward of the localities above mentioned. It 
would appear that it extends over the whole of the southern portion of the Australian continent, as I have 
specimens in my collection which were killed at Swan River, in South Australia, and in New South Wales : 
the extent of its range northwards is not known ; I have never yet seen examples from the north coast. * 
It is a most sprightly and active little bird, particularly the male, whose white throat and banded chest 
render him much more conspicuous than the sombre-coloured female. As the structure of its toes 
and lengthened tertiaries would lead us to expect, its natural province is the ground, to which it habitually 
resorts, and decidedly evinces a preference to spots of a sterile and barren character. The male, like many 
of the Saxicoline birds, frequently perches either on the summit of a stone, or on the extremity of a dead 
and leafless branch. It is rather shy in its disposition, and when disturbed flies off with considerable 
rapidity to the distance of two or three hundred yards before it alights again. I observed it in small 
companies on the plains near Adelaide, over the hard clayey surface of which it tripped with amazing 
quickness, with a motion that can neither be described as a hop or a run, but something between the two, 
accompanied by a bobbing action of the tail. 
Of its nidification, I regret to say, nothing is at present known. 
The male has the forehead, face, throat and all the under surface pure white ; occiput black ; chest 
crossed by a broad crescent of deep black, the points of which run up the sides of the neck and join the 
black of the occiput ; upper surface dark grey, with a patch of dark brown in the centre of each feather ; 
wings dark brown ; upper tail-coverts black ; two centre tail-feathers dark brown ; the remainder dark 
brown, with a large oblong patch of white on the inner web at the tip ; irides, in some, beautiful reddish 
buff, in others yellow with a slight tinge of red on the outer edge of the pupil ; bill and feet black. 
The female has the crown of the head, all the upper surface, wings and tail greyish brown, with a slight 
indication of the oblong white spot on the inner webs of the latter ; throat and under surface huffy white ; 
and a slight crescent of black on the chest. 
The figures are of the natural size. 
