_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
CINCLORAMPHUS RUFESCENS.
Rufous-tinted Cincloramphus.
_Anthus rufescens_, Vig. & Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 230.
_E-rolȅ-del_, Aborigines of the Mountain districts of Western
Australia.
_Singing Lark_ of the Colonists.
If Australia be not celebrated for its singing-birds, it has still some
few whose voices serve to enliven the monotony of its scenery; and of
these no one deserves greater attention than the bird here represented,
which is a very sweet songster, and whose note somewhat resembles, but
is much inferior to that of our own Skylark. With the exception of Van
Diemen’s Land, where I believe it is never seen, it appears to be
distributed over all parts of Australia, as evidenced by my collection,
containing specimens from every locality yet visited by Europeans. In
New South Wales and Western Australia it is strictly migratory, and only
a summer visitor, arriving in August and departing in February; on the
other hand, I met with it on the sand hills at Holdfast Bay in South
Australia in the month of July, the period of winter: although not
exclusively a terrestrial bird, it spends much of its time on the
ground, from which it makes perpendicular ascents to a great height in
the air, and then descending to the tops of the highest trees, flies
horizontally from one tree to another, singing all the time with the
greatest volubility; the female, which is not more than half the size of
the male, remaining all the while on the ground, from which she is not
easily aroused, and consequently not so often seen. It evinces a great
partiality to open grassy plains here and there studded with trees. It
breeds in October, November and December, and sometimes rears two broods
during the season. The nest is placed in a depression of the earth, most
frequently at the foot of a slightly raised tuft of grass, and is
externally composed of strong grasses and lined with very fine grasses,
and sometimes with hairs. The eggs are four in number, ten lines long by
seven and a half lines broad, and are of a purplish white, very boldly
marked with freckles and small blotches of deep chestnut-brown, so much
so as frequently to render the blotches more conspicuous than the ground
colour.
The female frequently utters a monotonous shriek or call at night.
The male has all the upper surface dark brown, each feather margined
with olive-brown; upper tail-coverts rufous; lores black; stripe above
the eye and throat whitish; all the under surface pale brownish grey,
deepening into buff on the under tail-coverts, and with a series of
minute spots of brown on the breast; irides hazel; bill dark lead-colour
in summer, fleshy brown in winter; tarsi yellowish grey; feet bluish
ashy grey.
The female is smaller and is destitute of the black lores; in other
respects she is so like the male that a separate description is
unnecessary.
The figures represent the two sexes of the natural size, on a branch of
the cherry-tree of the colonists (_Exocarpus Cupressiformis_).
[Illustration:
MIRAFRA HORSFIELDII: _Gould_.
_J. Gould and H. C. Richter del et lith._ _Hullmandel & Walton Imp._
]
MIRAFRA HORSFIELDII, _Gould_.
Horsfield’s Mirafra.
_Mirafra Horsfieldii_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., January 27, 1847.
This species, which I have named _Horsfieldii_ in honour of the founder
of the genus, is sparingly dispersed over all the plains and open
districts of New South Wales, but is more abundant on the inner side of
the mountain ranges towards the interior than between the ranges and the
sea; I have also a specimen procured during Dr. Leichardt’s overland
expedition from Moreton Bay, and one from the neighbourhood of Port
Essington: both of these, although possessing characters common to each
other, differ from specimens obtained in New South Wales in being
larger, redder in colour, and in having a stouter bill—features which
will probably hereafter prove them to be distinct, and which exhibit a
near alliance to the true _Mirafra Javanica_.
The bird here figured is from New South Wales, where I found it more
abundant on the Liverpool Plains than elsewhere; I also met with
solitary individuals in the district of the Upper Hunter.
In its habits it is more terrestrial than arboreal, and will frequently
allow itself to be almost trodden upon before it will rise, and then it
merely flies to a short distance and descends again; it may often be
seen perched upon the strong blades of grass and occasionally on the
trees; it frequently mounts high in the air after the manner of the
Skylark of Europe, singing all the time very melodiously, but with a
weaker strain than that favourite bird; it also occasionally utters its
pleasing song while perched on the branches of the trees.
The sexes are alike in colour and size.
General plumage ashy brown, the centre of the feathers dark brown, the
latter colour predominating on the head, lower part of the back and
tertiaries; wings brown margined with rufous; over the eye a stripe of
buff; chin white; under surface pale buff; throat crossed by a series of
dark brown spots arranged in a crescentic form; under surface of the
wing rufous; bill flesh-brown at the base and dark brown at the tip;
feet fleshy brown.
The figures are of the natural size.
[Illustration: