GROUND WREN. 
central tail-feathers blackish-brown with obsolete cross-bars and greyish tips to some 
of the feathers, the outer feathers darker and more inclining to black and tipped 
with white ; base of forehead, lores, and a line above the eye white like the eyelids ; 
a black spot in front of the eye ; sides of face similar to the crown with minute 
white streaks ; throat, breast, and abdomen white broadly streaked with black, 
or blackish ; sides of body and thighs dusky-grey ; under tail-coverts chestnut 
becoming paler at the tips ; axillaries and under wing-coverts slate-grey, the 
greater series and quill-lining blackish ; lower aspect of tail dusky greyish-brown, 
with a blackish subterminal band, and tipped with white. Bill dark horn, feet 
dark brown, legs lighter, eyes yellowish-brown. Total length 153 mm. ; culmen 12, 
wing 60, tail 56, tarsus 24. Figured. Collected on Middle River, Kangaroo 
Island, South Australia, and is the type of Hylacola cauta halmaturina. 
Adult female. General colour of the upper-surface dark smoke-brown, including the 
top of the head, hincl-neck, back, scapulars, and upper wing-coverts ; primary- 
coverts blackish ; base of outer primaries white on the outer webs, which form a 
wing-speculum ; inner webs of the flight-quills blackish-brown with whitish 
margins ; upper tail-coverts dark chestnut ; central tail-feathers dark smoke- 
brown with greyish-white tips and obsolete cross-bars, outer feathers blackish 
tipped with white ; base of forehead, loral streak which extends over the eye and 
along the sides of the crown white like the eyelids ; a short blackish supraloral 
streak ; sides of the face similar to the top of the head with an admixture of 
whitish ; throat, breast, and abdomen yellowish-white with dark elongated 
streaks to the feathers ; sides of body and thighs dusky-brown ; under tail- 
coverts like those on the upper-surface ; under wing-coverts and inner margins 
of quills below pale buff ; remainder of quill-lining dark brown ; lower aspect 
of tail blackish with white tips to the feathers. Bill dark horn ; feet slate ; eyes 
brown. Total length 132 mm. ; culmen 11, wing 54, tail 51, tarsus 21. Figured. 
Collected at Gerahmin (Mallee), Victoria, on September 10th, 1912. The female 
is very similar to the male but has the under-surface buff. 
Immature. Very similar to the adult, but the eye-streak is buffish. 
Nest — Dome-shaped with side entrance, composed of bark and grasses and lined with 
finer grasses, and sometimes with feathers or other soft material. Very similar 
to that of H. p. pyrrho'pygia and about the same size. Placed near the ground. 
Eggs. — Clutch, two to three. Ground-colour purplish-brown shading to a lighter colour 
at the smaller end. Sometimes a zone is found at the larger end. 21 mm. by 1^5. 
Breeding-season. — September to November or December. 
When Vigors and Horsfield described the Australian birds in the collection 
of the Linnean Society they proposed as a new species of their new genus 
AcantMza, the present form under the name Acanthiza pyrrhopygia, remarking 
however : “ This species has a tail more elongated, and somewhat more 
graduated than the typical species of the genus. In its other external 
characters and in the disposition of the colours it sufficiently accords with 
the group. By the characters of its tail it appears to approach the Maluri ; 
and with Malurus exilis, a species described above, it may be said to form a 
passage between these two closely allied groups.” 
Gould proposed a new species and a new genus for this form and gave the 
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