PODARGUS PHALAINOIDES, Gowda. 
Moth-plumaged Podargus. 
Podargus phalenoides, Gould, in Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 142. 
Ny-ane ? and In-ner-jin-ert, Aborigines of the neighbourhood of Port Essington. 
Tue present bird, which is from Port Essington, may be readily distinguished from every other Australian 
species of Podargus by its small size, by the beautiful, delicate and moth-like painting of its plumage, and 
by the colouring of the thighs, which are light brown instead of black ; its tail also is rather more 
lengthened than that of the common species. Like the members of the genus inhabiting Van Diemen’s 
Land and New South Wales, it exhibits considerable variation in size and colouring ; in some a rusty red 
tint pervades the whole plumage, while in others no trace of this hue occurs. I am inclined to consider 
that age has much to do with this variation in colour; but whether the red-tinted birds are immature or 
adult I have had no means of ascertaining ; further observation is necessary to determine this point; and I 
cousequently hope the subject will not be neglected by those who may have an opportunity of observing the 
bird alive. The red-tinted birds occur less frequently than the others. 
I have several specimens from the north-west coast of Australia; and Mr. Gilbert states that it is 
abundant in every part of the Cobourg Peninsula. 
Like the rest of the genus it is strictly nocturnal in its habits. Becoming animated at the approach of 
evening, it sallies forth from the favourite branch where it has rested during the day, in search of insects, 
which, I believe, almost exclusively constitute its food. Its whole economy, in fact, so far as known, so 
closely resembles that of the Podargus humeralis, that one description would serve for both. 
Forehead, sides of the face, and all the under surface brownish grey, minutely freckled with black ; the 
feathers of the under surface with a stripe of blackish brown down the centre, these stripes being broadest 
and most conspicuous on the sides of the chest; all the upper surface brown, minutely freckled with grey, 
each feather with a broad stripe of black down the centre; shoulders dark brown; coyerts freckled with 
greyish white, and with a spot of white, the centre of which ts fawn-colour, at the tip ; primaries dark brown, 
crossed ou their outer webs with an irregular bar of white, the interspaces on the outer primaries rufous ; 
inner webs of the primaries crossed by irregular bands of freckled brown and fawn-colour ; tail brown, crossed 
by numerous broad bauds of freckled grey, bounded on either side by irregular blotchings of black ; irides 
orange or reddish hazel ; bill horn-colour, | 
In the other state to which I have alluded, the whole of the upper surface is of a dark rust-red, freckled 
on the forehead, wing-coverts, and scapularies with white, the bands on the tail less apparent, a rufous 
tint pervades the grey of the under surface, and the striae are much narrower than in the specimen above 
described, 
The Plate represents a male, and a female (in the differently tinted plumage), of the natural size. 
