WATTLE-BIRD. 
Creadion 'paradoocits westernensis Mathews, ib. 
Creadion paradoxus Mathews, ib. 
Distribution. Tasmania and Islands of Bass Straits. 
Adult female. Feathers of the top of the head and back of the neck black, each feather 
margined down the sides with white ; mantle and wing-coverts blackish-brown 
with wliitish shaft-streaks ; rump and upper tail-coverts greyish-ash, shaded with 
dusky and with a wliitish shaft-streak; the largest upper tail-coverts ash-grey, 
with a reddish shaft stripe ; secondaries brownish-black, very widely margined on 
tlie inner web wdth silveiy-wbite ; primaries blackish-brown, fringed on the outer 
web with wliite, the inner web margined with greyish-white and with a broad 
white tip ; tail very long, dark brown in colour and wdely tipped at the extremity 
with wliite ; a wliitish eyebrow terminating in a white patch beliind the eye ; sides 
of the face barred with black and white, a whitish streak from the base of the lower 
mandible down the sides of the throat; feathers of the throat white and terminating 
in long whiskers ; sides of the neck and of the head blackish-grey ; chest-feathers 
long and pointed, greyish-white in colour with a broad streak of dark ash down the 
centre, widest at the base ; belly white with oval spots of dark ash, upper abdomen 
golden-yellow'; low’er abdomen and under taU-coverts white with ash middles. 
Bill black, feet yellow, claws brown, eyes brown, wattle rich orange at tip, whitish 
at base. Total length 470 mm. ; culmen 20, wing 178, tail 213, tarsus 43. Figured. 
Collected at Launceston, Tasmania, in June, 1905. 
Adult male similar to the adult female, but smaller, and with smaller wattles. 
The young seem to take on the adult plumage from the nest, that is, resemble the adult, 
“ Young birds resemble the adults, but the margins of the feathers on the crown of the head 
and hind-neck are pale brown and the central dark brown streak‘d are not so sharply 
defined ; the wattles are much smaller and the under-parts are less distinctly defined, 
especially on the lower side of the breast,’’ (North.) 
Nest. Cup-shaped, placed in a fork. Composed of small twigs, loosely put together and 
lined with fine grass and wool. Decorated with cocoons (green and white). Outside 
dimensions, 4 inches deep by 6 wide ; inside, 1^ inches deep by 3i wide. 
A rather flat structure, and very similar in construction to that of A. caruncvlaUiy 
only sometimes it is larger, the dimensions over all at times being as much as 10 
and 11 inches. 
Eggs. Two to tliree eggs form the clutch. A clutch of two eggs taken near Launceston, 
Tasmania, on the 25th of October, 1905, is of a pinkish-bufi ground-colour, spotted, 
chiefly about the larger end, with reddish-brown and puiplish-grey. Swollen ovals 
in shape. Surface of shell smooth and glossy. 32-33 by 23 mm. 
Breedhig-inontJis. July to December, 
As already noted, this Tasmanian bird was confused -with the New South 
Wales bird named Merops carunculahts by Latham, and Vigors and Horsfield 
used Latham’s name for the Tasmanian bird, renaming the continental bird. 
Gould pointed this out, describing the Tasmanian bird as a distinct species 
and gave the following note of its habits z The vast primeval forests of 
Eucalypti clothing the greater portion of Tasmania are the habitual resort of 
this bird ; from these retreats, however, it frequently emerges, and visits the 
VOL. 
xn. 
73 
