THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Adult female. Crown of head, sides of face, hind-neck, and mantle rufous chestnut, becoming 
darker on the last, where the feathers have wavy bars of blackish-brown, the shafts 
of the feathers are white and stand out in bold relief ; the short scapulars and inner 
lesser upper wing-coverts darker chestnut, and the dark pattern much coarser on the 
long scapulars and inner median series, there are also white cross markings — each 
of these patterns are much more enlarged on the innermost secondaries ; outer lesser 
upper wing-coverts huffy jwhite, or straw-white with dark brown markings and 
white shaft-lines, the pattern similar, but much coarser on the bastard-wing, and 
primary-coverts ; flight-quills rufous with dark brown mottled bars on the inner 
webs, which are much broader towards the tips, the outer webs blotched with buffy- 
white and irregularly marked with dark brown; back and short upper tail-coverts sooty- 
brown minutely marked with buffy-white which is more conspicuous on the latter, the 
long upper-t ail-coverts much more coarsely mottled with chestnut, huffy-white, and 
greenish-brown which assume the shape of wavy bars ; tail-feathers blackish-brown 
with a greenish tinge tipped with white and irregularly barred or marked with 
white, or buff -white, and smoke-brown — ^the markings most profuse on the middle 
feathers ; chin and throat straw-colour, becoming buff on the fore-neck and upper 
breast, minutely spotted or barred with brown on the last ; lower breast, abdomen, 
sides of the body and thighs sooty-black, irregularly marked with buffy-white — 
more profusely on the abdomen and thighs and more sparsely on the under tail- 
coverts ; axillaries tinged with dark rufous ; under wing-coverts dark rufous flnely 
marked with brown and whitish spear-head shaft-lines ; under-surface of flight-quills 
pale rufous, barred with brown and marked with white on the outer web of the outer 
primary-quill ; lower aspect of tail glossy bluish-black, more or less mottled, and 
tipped with cream-white. Eyes dark-brown ; bill light brown ; tarsus bluish-grey. 
Total length 710 ; culmen 37, wing 276, tail 390, tarsus 48. Figured. Collected 
at King E-iver, North-west Australia on the 5th of July, 1911. 
Adult male. Similar, but smaller. 
The Immature of each form assume the adult plumage more or less from the nest. 
Nest. Placed in the centre of a tussock of broad flag-leaved grass and is built with the 
flags and stems of the tussock. These are interwoven into the sides and roof of a rough 
nest, which is lined on the bott om with gum-leaves. There is a little pathway built of 
gum and wattle-leaves, from the mouth of the nest sloping down to within six inches 
of the ground. Dimension 14 inches by 14 high outside ; 7 inches by 9 long inside. 
Eggs. Clutch three to five. White. 35 to 38 mm. by 27 to 30. 
Breeding-season. November to February, but eggs have been taken at different months. 
When Latham first saw the painting of this fine species he named it Cuculus 
phasianinus, the Pheasant Cuckoo, probably from the note attached to the 
Wathng painting. “ One half the natural size. Native name Tem-mincTc. 
The New South Wales Pheasant. The only one seen as yet.” 
Later several specimens must have reached England, as Leach, in the 
Zool. Miscellany, created a genus Polophilus, probably unaware of lUiger’s 
genus Centropus, while a couple of years later Vieillot proposed Corydonyx for 
the same group. As, however, Leach was dealing with Australian birds I use 
his name for the Australian species. He named as distinct a colour variation, 
and this was recognised by Vigors and Horsfield, who give no details of the 
habits of their species. 
Gould’s account is somewhat meagre but of interest. “ The Centropus 
inhabiting New South Wales differs from that found at Port Essington in having 
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