HEMIPODIUS PYRRHOTHORAX, Gould, 
Red-cliested Hemipode. 
Hemipodius pyrrhothorax, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., November 10, 1840. 
Little as is known of the Swift-flying Hemipode, even less information has been obtained respecting the 
history of the present species, which, although assimilating in some of its characters to the former, differs 
from it in the marking of the face and neck, and the rufous colouring of the fore part of the throat and 
chest : it is also somewhat more slender and elegant in its proportions. It first came under my notice 
while traversing the flats near Aberdeen, on the Upper Hunter, when my dog pointing at what I conceived 
to be a specimen of the preceding species, a female of the present bird arose before me, and I at once 
saw, from the rufous colouring of the breast, that it differed from any I had previously seen : my shot was 
a successful one, and it was with no small delight that I picked up the beautiful bird, from which the 
accompanying drawing of the female was taken. I diligently sought for others, but was not fortunate 
enough to meet with a second living specimen. For the little male which enables me to complete my 
Plate, I am indebted to Mr. Charles Coxen, who had killed it some years before in the neighbourhood of 
the Liverpool Plains, but who could give me no further information respecting it : he had never seen the 
female. Of its habits and nidification of course nothing is therefore known : when the distant interior is 
explored, its true habitat will doubtless be discovered, but until then its history must remain buried in 
obscurity. 
Crown of the head dark brown, with a line of buff down the centre; feathers surrounding the eye, ear- 
. coverts and sides of the neck extremely small, white edged with black ; back and rump dark brown, trans- 
versely rayed with bars and freckles of black and buff ; wings paler, edged with buff, within which is a line 
of black running in the same direction ; primaries brown, margined with buff ; throat, chest, flanks and 
under tail-coverts sandy red, passing into white on the centre of the abdomen ; bill horn-colour ; irides 
straw-yellow ; feet yellowish white. 
The male has a similar character of markings on the upper surface, but the colouring of the throat and 
flanks is much paler. 
The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size. 
