THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Distribution. Australia ; Tasmania 
Adult male. General colour above bronze-green with coppery reflections on the head and 
back ; upper wing-coverts, scapulars, and innermost secondaries with narrow 
edgings of bufi or whitish ; bastard-wing and primary-coverts dark brown, flight- 
quills dull bronze-green on the outer webs, which are slightly edged with whitish 
and brown on the inner ones, the last are white at the base and more or less tinged 
with rufous ; head, hind-neck, mantle, and back copper-bronze ; upper tail-coverts 
bronze-green, as are also the two middle tail-feathers, the next pair of tail-feathers 
similar with a dark subterminal band, a white spot at the tip on the inner web, and 
a tinge of rufous on the outer web towards the base, the following pair are like the 
last with an additional amount of rufous which occupies the outer web on the basal 
portion, the penultimate pair of feathers entirely rufous on the basal two-thirds of 
their length, a bufly-white spot towards the tip on the inner web which has a dark 
shadow, and the outer web slightly edged with white, the outeimost pair blackish- 
brown on the inner web, becoming paler towards the tips, with large ovate spots of 
white, the outer web pale brown incised with white ; sides of the face including the 
ear-coverts brown intermixed with buff or buffy-white ; chin and upper throat buff 
streaked with brown ; fore-neck and sides of neck also buff with dusky-brown semi- 
circular bars to the feathers ; middle of breast, abdomen, and vent white ; sides of 
breast, sides of abdomen, sides of body, axillaries, and under wing-coverts white, 
regularly barred with bronze-brown ; under tail-coverts white, some of the feathers 
having bronze-brown shaft-lines and others pear-shaped spots of the same colour ; 
under-surface of quills pale brown with an oblique isabelline patch which inchnes to 
white towards the base ; lower aspect of tail pale bronze-green marked with dark 
brown, rufous, and white. Eyes light brown ; feet and tarsus dark grey ; bill black. 
Total length 160 mm. ; culmen 11, wing 103, tail 70, tarsus 17. Figured. 
Collected at Parramatta, New South Wales, in July, 1909. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature. Head, ear-coverts, hind-neck, mantle, and back dusky-brown ; upper wing- 
coverts, scapulars, innermost secondaries, and upper tail-coverts bronze-brown 
narrowly edged with rufous, outer edge of wing buffy-white, bastard-wing and 
primary-coverts brown, flight-quills bronze-green on the outer webs, pale brown on 
the inner ones, which are rufous at the base, becoming paler and inchning to white 
on the inner secondaries ; the two middle tail-feathers uniform bronze-brown, the 
next pair rufous at the base and very slightly paler at the tip, the rufous at the 
base of the following pair increasing in extent towards the tips, an ovate pale rufous 
spot on the inner web, which is followed by a dark blotch and a white spot at the tip, 
the penultimatepair similar to the last, but the rufous spot mentioned on the previous 
pair of feathers is here replaced by white, the dark portion of the feather near the 
tip in greater contrast, the outermost pair dark brown on the inner webs with some- 
what large ovate white spots, outer web paler with three very pale rufous marks and 
slightly edged with wliite on the apical portion ; throat, breast, and remainder of the 
under-surface pale ash-grey with a buffy tinge more particularly on the sides of the 
abdomen and under wing-coverts, paler and inclining to white on the middle of the 
abdomen and under tail-coverts, the latter having dark shaft-hnes ; under-surface 
of quiUs pale brown with rufous edgings which become paler and inchning to white 
on the secondaries ; lower aspect of tail rufous at the base on the lateral feathers, 
which are darker at the tips and spotted with white, the middle feathers pale bronze- 
green, the outermost pair dark brown on the inner webs boldly marked with white, 
paler on the outer webs and faintly tinged with rufous. Figured. Collected at 
Beaconsfleld, Victoria, on the 28th of February, 1910. 
Egg. Ground-colour pinkish, uniformly spotted aU over with small pinkish red spots. 
17-19 mm. by 12-13. 
Breeding-season. July to January. 
340 
