_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
MONARCHA CARINATA.
Carinated Flycatcher.
_Muscipeta carinata_, Swains. Zool. Ill., 1st ser., pl. 147.
_Drymophila carinata_, Temm. Pl. Col. 418. f. 2.
_Monarcha carinata_, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p.
255.—Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part II.
This is a migratory bird in New South Wales, arriving in spring and
departing before winter. It gives a decided preference to thick brushy
forests, such as those at Illawarra and other similar districts
extending from the Hunter to Moreton Bay. It is also equally abundant in
the thick brushes which clothe the sloping mountains of the interior.
During the spring or pairing time it becomes very animated, and is
continually flying about and beneath the branches of the trees; it does
not capture insects, like the true Flycatchers, on the wing, but obtains
them while hopping about from branch to branch, after the manner of the
_Pachycephalæ_. It has a rather loud whistling note, which being often
repeated tends considerably to enliven the woods in which it dwells.
I dissected many examples in the bright plumage, all of which proved to
be males, yet I could not fully satisfy myself whether the upper bird in
the Plate is a female, a young bird, or a distinct species; I believe,
however, that it will prove to be the female.
The _Monarcha carinata_ does not inhabit Van Diemen’s Land or South
Australia; its great nursery is evidently the south-eastern portion of
the country: a distinct but nearly-allied species inhabits the north
coast, of which I have specimens in my collection from the neighbourhood
of Cape York.
Forehead, lores and throat jet-black; all the upper surface grey; wings
and tail brown; sides of the neck and the chest light grey; abdomen and
under tail-coverts rufous; bill beautiful light blue-grey, the tip paler
than the base; legs bluish lead-colour; irides black; inside of the
mouth greyish blue.
In all probability, the females and the young males of the year are
destitute of the black mark on the face, and the upper figure is that of
a female or a male in the plumage of the first year.
The figures are of the size of life.
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