THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Gould’s account under the name A. pusilla reads : “ The present bird is 
very generally dispersed over New South Wales, where it inhabits the brushes, 
thickets and gardens. It is most nearly allied to the A. diemenensis, but may be 
distinguished from that species by its more diminutive size, by its much shorter 
bill, and smaller tail. It is an active prying little bird and spends much of its 
time amid the smaller leafy branches of the trees, from among which it collects 
its insect food ; the tail is generally carried above the line of the body.” 
Of A. diemenensis he wrote : “I believe this species to be peculiar to 
Tasmania, over the whole of which country it is rather numerously dispersed, 
and where it inhabits forests and open woodlands, but evinces a preference to 
low and shrub-like trees rather than to those of a higher growth. It also 
frequents the gardens and shrubberies of the colonists ; it is consequently one 
of the commonest and one of the best known birds of the island. Active and 
sprightly in its actions, it pries about the foliage with the most scrutinizing 
care in search of insects and their larvae, which constitute its sole food. It 
frequently utters a rather loud harsh note, which is sometimes changed for a 
more full and clear strain ; still its vocal powers are by no means conspicuous. 
It has a much more lengthened bill, and is altogether a larger bird than the 
Acanthiza pusilla , whose habitat seems restricted to the south-eastern portion 
of the Australian continent. The plumage of the sexes is alike.” 
As a synonym of A. diemenensis, with doubt but without explanation, lie 
placed in his Handbook A. ewingi which he had figured as a distinct species in 
his Birds of Australia. 
Gould differentiated as a new species Acanthiza pyrrhopygia writing : 
“ This species differs from the Acanthiza diemenensis, pusilla, and apicalis, in 
having a shorter and more robust bill, and in the greater depth of the red colour- 
ing on the rump and upper tail-coverts ; it also differs from the two former 
in having the tail tipped with white, in which respect it assimilates to the 
A. apicalis and A. uropygialis, to the former of which it is most nearly allied. 
I discovered this species in the Belts of the Murray, where it inhabits the small 
scrubby trees ; upon first seeing it, I at once perceived that it was a distinct 
species by the red colouring of the rump, which showed very conspicuously at 
the distance of several yards, and also by the peculiarity of its note. In its 
actions it very closely assimilates to the other members of the genus, being an 
alert and quick little bird, carrying its tail above the level of the back, and showing 
the red colouring of the coverts to the greatest advantage. I succeeded in 
killing both sexes, and found that they exhibit no outward difference, and are 
only to be distinguished with certainty by dissection.” 
As another distinct species Gould described A. apicalis, observing : “ This 
species, which is a native of Western Australia, is distinguished from those 
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