_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
PARDALOTUS PUNCTATUS, _Temm._
Spotted Pardalote.
_Pardalotus punctatus_, Temm., Man., Part I. p. lxv.—Id. Pl. Col.,
78.—Vieill. Gal. des Ois., tom. i. pl. 73.—Vig. and Horsf.
in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 237.—Gould, Syn. Birds of
Australia, Part II.
_Pipra punctata_, Lath. Ind. Orn., Supp., p. lvi. No. 1.—Shaw, Nat.
Misc., p. 111.—Id. Zool., vol. x. p. 30.
_Speckled Manikin_, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., vol. ii. p. 253.—Id. Gen.
Hist., vol. vii. p. 238.
_Wë-dup-wë-dup_, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western
Australia.
_Diamond Bird_, Colonists of New South Wales.
No species of the genus to which this bird belongs is more widely and
generally distributed than the Spotted Pardalote; it inhabits the whole
of the southern parts of the Australian continent from the western to
the eastern extremities of the country, and is very common in Van
Diemen’s Land. It is nearly always engaged in searching for insects
among the foliage, both of trees of the highest growth and of the lowest
shrubs; it frequents gardens and enclosures as well as the open forest;
and is exceedingly active in its actions, clinging about in every
variety of position both above and beneath the leaves with equal
facility.
With regard to the nidification of this species, it is a singular
circumstance, that in the choice of situation for the reception of its
nest, it differs from every other known member of the genus; for while
they always place their nests in the holes of trees, this species
descends to the ground, and availing itself of any little shelving bank
that occurs in its vicinity, excavates a hole just large enough to admit
of the passage of its body, in a nearly horizontal direction to the
depth of two or three feet, at the end of which a chamber is formed in
which the nest is deposited. The nest itself is a neat and beautifully
built structure, formed of strips of the inner bark of the _Eucalypti_,
and lined with finer strips of the same or similar materials; it is of a
spherical contour, about four inches in diameter, with a small hole in
the side for an entrance. The chamber is generally somewhat higher than
the mouth of the hole, by which means the risk of its being inundated
upon the occurrence of rain is obviated. I have been fortunate enough to
discover many of the nests of this species, but they are most difficult
to detect, and are only to be found by watching for the egress or
ingress of the parent birds from or into its hole or entrance, which is
frequently formed in a part of the bank overhung with herbage, or
beneath the overhanging roots of a tree. How so neat a structure as is
the nest of the Spotted Pardalote, should be constructed at the end of a
hole where no light can possibly enter is beyond our comprehension, and
is one of those wonderful results of instinct so often presented to our
notice in the history of the animal creation, without our being in any
way able to account for them. The present species rears two broods in
the course of the year, the eggs upon each occasion being four or five
in number, rather round in form, of a beautiful polished fleshy white,
seven and a half lines long by six and a half lines broad.
Its voice is a rather harsh piping note of two syllables often repeated.
The male has the crown of the head, wings, and tail black, each feather
having a round spot of white near the tip; a stripe of white commences
at the nostrils and passes over the eye; ear-coverts and sides of the
neck grey; feathers of the back grey at the base, succeeded by a
triangular-shaped spot of fawn-colour, and edged with black; rump rufous
brown; upper tail-coverts crimson; throat, chest, and under tail-coverts
yellow; abdomen and flanks tawny; irides dark brown; bill brownish
black; feet brown.
The female may be distinguished by the less strongly contrasted tints of
her colouring, and by the absence of the bright yellow on the throat.
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size.
[Illustration:
PARDALOTUS RUBRICATUS: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
PARDALOTUS RUBRICATUS, _Gould_.
Red-lored Pardalote.
_Pardalotus rubricatus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 149;
and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
All the information I have to communicate respecting this new and
beautiful Pardalote, which I have named _rubricatus_, from the red spot
before the eye, is, that I procured a single specimen at Liverpool from
among some other birds, all of which had been brought from the east
coast of Australia: no other example has come under my notice, and it
may probably be the only one in Europe. It belongs to the same section
of the _Pardaloti_ as the _P. punctatus_ and _P. quadragintus_, and like
them is distinguished from the other members of the group by the absence
of the sealing-wax-like tips of the spurious wing-feathers,—a character
which is constant in the _P. uropygialis_, _P. affinis_, _P. striatus_
and _P. melanocephalus_. It is the largest species of the genus yet
discovered, all the members of which are confined to Australia; and is
readily distinguished from its near allies the _P. punctatus_ and _P.
quadragintus_ by the larger size of the spots on the crown, and by its
having less yellow on the throat than the former, and more than the
latter.
As nothing whatever is at present known respecting it, it is one of
those species I would especially recommend to the notice of those
favourably situated for observing it.
Forehead crossed by a narrow band of dirty white; crown and back of the
head deep black, each feather having a spot of white near its extremity;
back of the neck, back, wing-coverts and rump brownish grey; wings dark
brown, margined with pale brown, the spurious wing, a small portion of
the base of the primaries, and the outer margins of the secondaries fine
golden orange; immediately before the eye a spot of bright, fiery
orange; above and behind the eye a stripe of buff; upper tail-coverts
bright olive-green; tail deep blackish brown, the extreme tips of the
feathers being white; throat and abdomen greyish white; chest bright
yellow; upper mandible and legs brown, under mandible greyish white.
The bird is represented in two positions, of the natural size, on a
plant gathered in New South Wales.
[Illustration:
PARDALOTUS QUADRAGINTUS: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
PARDALOTUS QUADRAGINTUS, _Gould_.
Forty-spotted Pardalote.
_Pardalotus quadragintus_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p.
148; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
_Forty-spot_, Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land.
This species is peculiar to Van Diemen’s Land, where it inhabits the
almost impenetrable forests which cover that island, particularly those
of its southern portion. It is I think less numerous than its congener,
the _Pardalotus affinis_, and appears to confine itself more exclusively
to the highest gum-trees than that species. I found it very abundant in
the gulleys under Mount Wellington, and observed it breeding in a hole
in one of the loftiest trees, at about forty feet from the ground; I
afterwards took a perfectly developed white egg from the body of a
female killed on the 5th of October. The weight of this little bird was
rather more than a quarter of an ounce; the stomach was muscular, and
contained the remains of the larvæ of lepidoptera, which with coleoptera
and other insects constitute its food.
It has a simple piping kind of note of two syllables.
In its actions it much resembles the Tits of Europe, creeping and
clinging among the branches in every direction.
The eggs are white and nearly round in form, being seven lines and a
half long and six broad.
The sexes are so much alike in colour, that a separate description is
unnecessary.
Crown of the head and all the upper surface bright olive-green, each
feather obscurely margined with brown; wings brownish black, all the
feathers except the first and second primaries having a conspicuous spot
of pure white near their extremities; tail blackish grey, the extreme
tips of the feathers being white; cheeks and under tail-coverts
yellowish olive; throat and under surface greyish white, passing into
olive on the flanks; irides dark brown; bill brownish black; feet brown.
The figures are of the natural size.
[Illustration: