98 
HORN EXPEDITION—AVES. 
[The Orange-winged Sittella loves to work liead downwards, or hopping along 
under the limbs of trees inspecting the crevices in the bark in search of spiders 
or small insects. So in Central Australia we found the little black-headed species 
behaving in exactly the same manner. In mulga scrub or on the large eucalypts 
they might be seen either singly, in pairs, or flocks of a dozen or more busily at 
work. The sexes are easily distinguished, as all the upper part of the head in the 
female is black, whilst the male has simply a black cap with white at the base of 
the bill and over the eyes.] 
No. G8. PiiAPS ciiALCOPTERA, Latham. Common Bronze-wing. 
Columha chalcoptera, Lath., Ind. Orn., Vol. II., p. 604 (1790). 
Feristera chalcoptera.^ Gould, Bds. Austr., fob, Vol. V., pi. 64 (1848). 
Fhaps chalcoptera, Sturt, Exped. Centr. Austr., Vol. II., App. p. 41 (1849); 
Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. II., 2nd series, p. 171 (1887); North, 
Nests and Eggs Austr. Bds., p. 273 (1889); Salvad., Brit. Mus. Cat. Bds., 
Vol. XXL, p. 526 (1893). 
A. p imm. sk., Lawrie’s Creek. 
B. 5 nearly ad. sk., Reedy Hole. 
C. j imm. sk., Glen Ellen. 
D. p imm. sk., Davenport Creek. 
E. 5 imm. sk., Lawrie’s Creek. 
[At all permanent water these birds came at sunset, and continued arriving 
until quite dark, in order to drink. The first comers were generally young birds, 
the old ones coming later. They arrived singly, and could be heard to drop on 
the ground about fifty yards from the water with a heavy thud, and would then 
wait preening their feathers until joined by several others, when they marched in 
single file to the water, quenched their thirst, rose singly and quickly disappeared. 
At Reedy Hole several young birds were killed. When at one dry creek, a hole 
was made deep in the sand to get a soakage; the task was not completed until 
long after dark, but at the first streak of light the following morning pigeons 
commenced to arrive, and before it was light enough to shoot our black boy killed 
one with a stone. It would thus appear that these birds are either semi-nocturnal 
in their habits or- able to scent the water, as it must have been some time since 
surface water existed there, for the hole required to be sunk over five feet.] 
