THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
white ; primary- quills also blackish on the outer webs and at the tips, pale brown 
on the inner webs and the shafts white ; secondaries ash-brown, fringed with 
white, the long innermost feathers dark brown with hoary edges ; lower-back 
pale brown with white fringes to the feathers ; upper tail-coverts white with dark 
lanceolate shaft-lines or irregular dark spots ; tail ash-grey, somewhat darker 
on the middle feathers ; sides of face, throat, and under-surface white with streaks 
of brown on the forehead and sides of face, and oval spots of dark brown on the 
fore-neck, breast, and sides of body — much more sparsely on the latter ; a few dark 
streaks on the under tail-coverts and some elongated brown marks on the flanlcs ; 
axillaries white, irregularly marked with pale brown longitudinally ; under wing- 
coverts white ; iris brown ; feet ohve-brown ; bill black, base of lower mandible 
brown. Total length 292 mm ; culmen 40, wing 186, tail 70, tarsus 34. 
Adult female, in summer -^plumage. Differs only in having less rufous on the back. 
Adult, in winter-plumage. Differs chiefly in being greyer above with no black or chestnut, 
and the streaks and spots on the breast and sides of body are paler in colour and 
smaller in size. 
Nest and eggs. Undescribed. 
Mr. J. P. Rogers found these birds plentiful on Melville Island, Northern 
Territory, in May, 1912. 
Ramsay {Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1877, p. 338) says he met with a small 
flock of this species on one occasion only, on the banks of the Herbert River 
in Queensland. 
Hill (Emu, Vol. XII., p. 252, 1913) says that it was ^‘fairly numerous in 
the Cowie river,” at Bonoloola, Northern Territory, but does not appear to 
have procured any specimens. 
Middendorff {l.c.) reports : “ All the summer large flocks of this bird 
were seen on the south coast of the Sea of Ochotsk. Although there 
were both males and females they did not breed there. Males and females 
were indistinguishable.” 
Schrenck {l.c.) records it from the Amur, shot by Maack a little above 
the Mariinskischen posten, on 17/29th of August. 
The male figured and described was collected on Melville Island, Northern 
Territory, on March 30th, 1912, by Mr. J. P. Rogers. 
The species-name of this bird is undoubtedly tenuirostris^ though recently 
it has been known as crassirostris and magnus. 
In the Trans. Linn. Soc. (Lond.), Vol. XIII., Horsfield gave a systematic 
account of the “ Birds of Java,” and therein described many new forms. The 
descriptions are quite inadequate to determine the species, and were it not for 
the fact that the types were preserved in the British Museum and have been 
accessible to workers for very many years, they could have been dismissed 
as indeterminable. In the present instance it was correctly used by authors 
who examined the type, such as Gould and G. R. Gray. Gould in 1848 
described this bird as Schoeniclus magnus ; but in 1865, having had his attention 
276 
