THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Immature male. Fore-part of head, sides of face and throat, and fore-neck ferruginous, 
some of the feathers on the last edged with brown at the tips ; top of head, hind-neck, 
and mantle similar with dark bases to the feathers ; back, scapulars, upper tail- 
coverts, and outer aspect of wings dark coffee-brown with blackish bases to the upper 
wing-coverts and inner webs of the bastard-wing, primary-coverts, and flight-quills ; 
tail blackish with glossy black shafts to the feathers which protrude beyond the 
webs at the tips ; sides of breast and sides of body, and under tail-coverts dark 
coffee-brown, inclining to greyish-brown on the thighs ; a few white feathers on 
the middle of the breast fading into very pale ferruginous on the middle of the 
abdomen ; under-surface of wings dark brown ; lower aspect of tail blackish. 
Eyes, bill and feet black. Collected at Allumbah, near Cairns, North Queensland, 
on the 19th of December, 1909. 
Nest. Like that of the preceding species. 
Eggs. Clutch, one. White. 35-38 mm. by 25-26. 
Breeding-season. May to August (November), September and October (Ramsay). 
Ramsay described this magnificent species and later gave the following 
note : “In habits and actions this fine species closely assimilates to 
0. spiniccmda, but is far more retiring and shy, much more noisy, and may 
be heard more frequently than seen. The young attains the adult plumage 
after the first moult, which takes place about December. They breed in 
September and October ; and I believe the young then hatched moult in 
February and March, judging from a very fine series of skins I then procured. 
This species has the habit of scratching up the dead leaves, and throwing 
the debris far behind it, after the manner of the ‘ Scrub hens ’ ( Megapodius 
tumulus). Its powers of mimicry are very great ; and, like the Lyre-birds, 
it seems capable of imitating almost any sound. These birds are not only 
rare, but at all times very difficult to obtain, and appear to be confined to 
the thickly timbered scrubs on the steep and rugged sides of the coast range 
near Cardwell.” 
Campbell and Barnard’s notes read : “ Bird lovers will be heartily enter- 
tained who hear this scrub chatterer for the first time. It is most noisy during 
early morning, when one or more birds may be seen upon the ground with 
bowed necks, jerking their heads frantically while jabbering a string of their 
‘ Chow-chilla-chow-chow-chilla ’ notes. The Log-Runners were confined to the 
ranges. One of our specimens procured was in immature plumage.” 
Very little appears to be on record in connection with this delightful 
endemic Australian form. 
I named a subspecies M. s. albiventer on account of its white abdomen, 
from Atherton, but no further material has been received. This is another of 
the very remarkable Rockingham Bay district evolutions ; a form resembling 
the southern species in size and coloration also occurring in New Guinea, 
while this form has developed so much in size. 
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