THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
slightly tinged with olive ; two centre tail-feathers brown ; the remainder 
white at the base, succeeded by a broad band of deep blackish-brown, round 
which is a broad stripe of white, which entirely crosses the outer feathers, but 
only the inner webs of the remainder, the tips pale brown ; throat and chest 
grey ; abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; bill and feet deep blackish-brown. 
“ Remark : In the Collection of the Earl of Derby. 
“ Habitat : Australia ; locality uncertain.” 
A Latin diagnosis preceded this, from which we get the measurements : 
“ Lon g- tot - 3f unc. ; rostri, f ; alae, 2\ ; caudse. If ; tarsi, §.” 
Three years later he described Psilopus culicivorus thus: “All the 
upper-surface olive-brown ; wings brown margined with olive ; two centre 
tail-feathers brown ; the remainder white, crossed by an irregular band of 
black and tipped with brown, the band upon all but the external feathers 
so blending with the brown at the tip that the white between merely forms a 
spot on the inner web ; lores blackish-brown ; line over the eye, throat 
and chest light grey, passing into buff on the flanks, and into white on the 
centre of the abdomen and under tail-coverts ; irides light reddish-yellow ; 
bill and feet black. 
“Total length 4J inches ; bill \, wing 2\, tail If, tarsi f. 
“Hab. : Western Australia.” 
It is obvious that these two descriptions apply to the same bird, but in 
his folio work Gould transferred the first name to quite a different species, 
and this he figured while retaining the above description. 
North described a species, which he compared with G. fusca, under the 
name Gerygone pallida from the Bellenden Ker Range, North Queensland. My 
series does not show a subspecies, but in deference to North’s high authority 
and his dislike to splitting, it was allowed to remain as valid until a thorough 
revision could be undertaken. I have now endeavoured to fix upon the form, 
but the only birds I could find from the Cairns district I had referred to the 
species Icevigaster. It is pleasing then to find that Messrs. Campbell and Barnard 
have recorded under the name Gerygone pallida : “ Supposed skins of this 
bird were obtained on the table-land scrubs, near the ranges, and a nest was 
observed swaying from a ‘ lawyer ’ palm. The birds, which were not scarce, 
seemed to approach North’s G. pallida , from the Cairns district ( Nests and Eggs , 
etc., Vol. I., p. 196). They are smaller and much lighter coloured than fusca, 
especially on the under-surface, which is almost white, and if a subspecies at 
all, show more affinity to Icevigaster than to fusca. More material is required. 
The total length of the Kirrama bird is very small — 3| inches, with wing If 
inches.” It would have been of distinct advantage to science had the writers 
instituted a direct comparison with the type of North’s species, as it was 
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