Woodpecker picking underneath the bark of the tree. It flies somewhat heavily when proceeding in a horizontal 
line, hut it more often happens that it will dart with lightning speed from a high perch to a lower one in a 
slanting direction. This bird will never fly upwards. When it wishes to shift its position it will hop from 
branch to branch until it is sufficiently high, and then goes off to another tree in a downward direction. The 
native name is ‘Bong Bong.’ I have never, during my residence of twelve years in the Richmond River 
district, heard it called by the name of ‘Yass.’ The eggs have, to the best of my knowledge and belief, 
never been obtained. One of my friends, a farmer, when clearing his land, told me he had felled a tree 
which had a nest with eggs in. The eggs were white, with spots, but were broken by the fall of the tree, and, 
having no further interest in the matter, he had not saved the pieces. Some years since, when in the 
scrub with some cedar-cutters in October, we discovered a nest in a small tree, the top of which was very 
densely covered with creepers. A native climbed the tree, but found the nest just completed, with no eggs. 
We left the nest undisturbed lor three weeks, when we found that it had been abandoned. We took it 
down and I found that it was built of sticks and leaves, similar to that of a Thrush. The inside was lined 
with snake-skins, and its diameter was about 9 inches. This bird has on one occasion been taken to 
London alive by myself. It lived in the Zoological Gardens for several years.” 
Adult male. General colour above velvety black, changing to deep fiery purple when viewed away from 
the light; wings black, the coverts deep purple like the back and scapulars, the quills bluish purple at the 
tip, the inner secondaries shaded with violet and bluish purple ; tail-feathers velvety black, the two centre 
feathers burnished steel-green, the next ones on each side glossed with steel-blue near the base ; crown of 
head burnished coppery green, fringed on the hind neck with metallic steel-blue ; behind the eye, above the 
ear-coverts, a longitudinal patch of velvety purple ; sides of face, sides of neck, and throat black, shaded 
with purple like the back when held away from the light ; from the lower throat a large triangular patch of 
burnished steel-green, extending to the fore neck ; breast velvety purple, each feather with a mesial shade 
of purplish blue, the plumes of the lower breast edged with olive-green ; the rest of the under surface 
entirely of the latter colour with coppery purple bases ; under wing- and tail-coverts black. Total length 
11*5 inches, cultnen 2, wing 6 - 2, tail 4 4, tarsus P45. 
Adult female. General colour above ashy brown ; the head also of this colour, all the feathers narrowly 
streaked with huffy white ; over the eye a long streak of dull white, forming a distinct eyebrow ; lores and 
sides of face brown, minutely streaked with buffy white, these streaks being also visible on the sides of the 
neck ; cheeks and throat pale ochraceous buff, with whitish shaft-streaks ; rest of under surface oehraceous 
buff, mottled with narrow black cross markings of irregular pattern, in the form of bars of different shapes ; 
the lower abdomen, flanks, and under tail-coverts transversely barred with blackish ; under wing-coverts 
orange-chestnut, with which colour also the quills are lined on the inner web ; upper wing-coverts ashy 
brown like the back and scapulars, the greater series and the primaries externally washed with orange- 
rufous ; quills brown, externally olivaceous brown, shading into orange-rufous on the edge of the quills ; tail 
warm brown, slightly shaded with olive and edged with orange-rufous along the inner web. Total length 
11*2 inches, culmen 2, wing 5*9, tail 4, tarsus 1*45. 
The young male at first resembles the old female, and the process of change by which it gains the adult 
plumage is extremely interesting to follow; but so little has been recorded of the seasonal changes of Rifle- 
birds that it is difficult to find out how long the male takes in emerging from the barred plumage into the 
full livery of the adult, or whether he takes more than one year before he changes into the complete 
plumage. 
One thing seems to be certain, viz. that the velvety plumage takes some time to acquire, and it is donned 
by means of a double process, both by moult and by a change of feather. Those plumes on the breast which 
are about to vary the pattern are generally plainly perceptible, and the kind of horseshoe marking which 
characterizes the young male begins to vary in form, breaking up into irregular lines, while the edges of the 
feathers commence to darken, at the same time that the centres become perceptibly lighter. The velvety 
green edges are acquired last. The quills are changed by a similar process, viz. partially by a clean 
moult, and partially by the darkening of the feather. 
The Plate represents a male, a female, and an immature male, of about the natural size. The figures 
are drawn from specimens in the British Museum, from which also the descriptions have been taken. 
