The addition of a second species to the genus _Psophodes_ will be hailed
with pleasure by every one who makes the science of ornithology a matter
of study; nor will its discovery be a subject of surprise to us, as it
is only another illustration of that beautiful law of representation
which is conspicuously carried out in Australia. The habitat of the
present bird will doubtless be hereafter found to be as strictly
confined to the western part of the continent as that of the _P.
crepitans_ is to the eastern. As yet only a single example has reached
me, and in all probability no other specimen has ever fallen by the gun
of any individual. It is to Mr. Gilbert’s perseverance that science is
indebted for the knowledge of this new bird, and his notes which
accompanied the specimen (a male) I here transcribe:—“Inhabits thickets
of a small species of _Leptospermum_ growing among the sand hills which
run parallel with and adjacent to the beach. It utters a peculiar harsh
and grating song which it is quite impossible to describe, and which is
so different from that of every other bird I ever heard or am acquainted
with, that I shall have no difficulty in recognizing it again wherever I
may hear it. I heard it for the first time, together with the notes of
many other birds equally strange to me, in the vicinity of the Wongan
Hills a few weeks back, but could not then obtain a sight of the bird,
although I knew from its singular and never to be mistaken note that it
was only a few yards from me.”
Plumage of the upper surface olive; under surface ashy, passing into
brown on the flanks and white on the centre of the abdomen; primaries
brown; tail light olive-brown, the four lateral feathers crossed near
the extremity with a hand of black, and tipped with white; throat deep
black, with a stripe of white from the angle of the lower mandible, just
within the black; bill dark horn-colour; irides dark brown; feet dark
horn-colour.
The figures are of the natural size.
[Illustration:
SPHENOSTOMA CRISTATUM: _Gould_.
_J. & E. Gould del^t._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._
]
SPHENOSTOMA CRISTATUM, _Gould_.
Crested Wedge-bill.
_Sphenostoma cristatum_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p.
150.—Ib. Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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