Genus— NORTHIELLA. 
Northiella Mathews, Nov. Zoo]., Vol. XVIII., p. 276, 
1912 . • . . . . . . . . . . Type N . hcematogaster. 
Small Platyeercine birds with small bills, long wings with spatulate tips to the 
first five primaries, very long wedge tails and small feet. 
The bill is similar to that of the preceding genus, but slightly more massive, 
tip long and rather hooked ; the under edge of upper mandible sinuate with an 
almost acute notch succeeding the tip. 
The under mandible almost as that of the preceding genus in every detail. 
The wing is long and peculiar ; the first five primaries are all attenuated into 
spatulate tips : the third and fourth are sub-equal and longest, the second 
longer than the fifth, the first is shorter than the second but is longer than the 
fifth ; the second, third, fourth and fifth primaries, as in the preceding genus, are 
scalloped on their outer edges. 
The tail is very long and strongly wedge-shaped, the two middle feathers 
noticeably longer than the next two. 
The feet are normal, small and delicate. 
The distinct coloration, the spatulate tips to the primaries and the range 
coincident with the preceding genus indicate the age of this genus. No other 
Psephotine bird has any indication of such spatulate tipping, and here it is 
developed on all the first five primaries. It is, however, not an inhabitant of 
Tasmania but only of the eastern interior of Australia. 
Gould drew attention in his Introduction to the Birds of Australia (8vo 
ed., p. 74) to the spatulate tips of the primaries, writing : “ This species differs 
from all the other members of the genus, as well as from those of all the allied 
genera, in the pointed form of the tips of its primaries.” 
