GERYGONE CHLORONOTUS, Gow. 
Green-backed Gerygone. 
Gerygone chloronotus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part X. p. 135. 
Tuis species is an inhabitant of the northern parts of Australia : it is tolerably abundant at Port Essington, 
where it dwells among the extensive beds of mangroves which stretch along the coast. It is of a very shy 
and retiring disposition, and as the colouring of its back assimilates very closely to that of the leaves of the 
mangroves, it isa very difficult bird to sight as it creeps about among the thick branches in search of insects, 
upon which it solely subsists. In form and in most of its habits and economy it offers some difference from 
the typical members of the genus Gerygone, and it would be no great stretch of propriety to assign to it a 
new generic appellation : the more lengthened form of its legs, the more rigid structure of its primaries, and 
the lesser development of the bristles at the gape, are among the points in which it differs from the Gerygone 
Juscus of the brushes of New South Wales. The latter feeds upon the smallest kinds of gnats and other 
soft insects which it captures in the air; on the other hand, the structure of the present bird would lead us 
to infer that the insects it feeds upon are procured either on the leaves or about the branches. 
The sexes are so precisely similar in plumage, and differ so little in size, that dissection must be resorted 
to to distinguish the one from the other. 
Head and back of the neck brownish grey ; back, wing-coverts, rump, upper tail-coverts, margins of the 
primaries, and the margins of the basal half of the tail-feathers bright olive-green; primaries and tail- 
feathers brown, the latter becoming much darker towards the extremity; under surface white ; sides and 
vent olive-yellow ; irides wood-brown ; upper mandible greenish grey ; lower mandible white; feet blackish 
grey. 
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size. 
