YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT. 
Adult female . Crown of head, nape, back, scapulars, and lesser upper wing-coverts dark 
brown with an olive tinge ; median and greater upper wing-coverts, bastard-wing, 
primary-coverts, and inner secondaries edged with dull white, or olive ; primary- 
quills hair-brown slightly edged with very pale yellow on the outer webs ; rump 
and upper tail-coverts dull yellow ; tail-feathers blackish fringed with buffy- 
white at the tips ; lores and sides of face whitish tinged with yellow ; throat, 
breast, abdomen, flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts yellow ; under wing-coverts 
pale buff tinged with yellow ; under-surface of quills hair-brown with pale margins ; 
lower aspect of tail similar with buffy-white tips to the feathers. Bill and feet 
grey, eyes white. Total length 95 min. ; cuhnen 11, wing 59, tail 34, tarsus 19. 
Figured. Collected at Normanton, Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, on the 17th 
of October, 1913. 
Nest. Cup-shaped, composed of grasses and rootlets and lined with finer ones. Yury 
similar to that of aurifrons, and the same size. Placed in a low bush. 
Eggs. Clutch, three. White, dotted all over purplish-red dots. 15-16 mm. by 11. 
Breeding-season. November to January. 
Discovered by Mr. T. A. Gulliver, of Townsville, at Normanton, this 
beautiful species was named by Castelnau and Ramsay. Probably the next 
naturalist to meet with the species was the enthusiastic but ill-fated young 
English ornithologist, Bowyer-Bower, whose notes I reproduced in the South 
Australian Ornithologist , and here add. 
“ 4 These birds allow one to get quite near, and then fly off to a small bush not 
far distant. They are always found on a kind of salt bush which grows near 
the lagoon in some 4 or 5 inches of water. They appear to feed on insects, 
after which they carefully look over the small bushes. 
These birds were seen flitting along some strong weedy grass growing out 
of the water, and appear to hang therefrom and peck insects off the water. 
They utter a very simple call note, but no song. When disturbed they take 
safety in some grass some 50 yards from the swamp.” 
Keartland has written : “ Whilst camped beside a lagoon about four 
miles from the Fitzroy River, North-western Australia, and nearly opposite 
Noorkoombah Station, I saw a great many examples of Ephthianura crocea. 
Their yellow plumage and black band at once attracted attention, but the 
mode of life was very different from that of E. aurifrons. Whilst the latter 
delights in searching for its insect food amongst salt bush or on the ground, 
E. crocea is more at home in the branches of trees about 15 or 20 feet high, 
where it hops about searching for insects, either in the bark or on the foliage. 
Occasionally the birds may be seen on the ground. They do not appear to 
associate in flocks like any of the other species of the genus, but each works 
on its own account. Their nests are built in the usual cup-shaped form, and 
the one from which my set of eggs was taken was placed in a thistle about 
four feet high.” 
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