The male has the crown of the head blackish brown; lores black; line over the eye and the throat dull buff; at the base of the throat a few indistinct blackish brown spots; all the upper surface rufous brown; primaries blackish brown at the base and light brown at the tip, all but the first crossed in the centre by a broad band of buff, to which succeeds another broad band of blackish brown; tail brown, all but the two centre feathers crossed by a broad band of blackish brown; all the under surface greyish brown, each feather of the chest and abdomen having a stripe of dull white, bounded on either side with black, running down the centre; under tail-coverts reddish buff, crossed by irregular bars of black; irides, bill and feet blackish brown. Little difference is observable either in the colour or size of the sexes; the female may, nevertheless, be at once distinguished from her mate by the spots at the base of the throat being rufous instead of blackish brown as in the male. The figures are those of a male and a female of the natural size. [Illustration: CLIMACTERIS RUFA: _Gould_. _J. & E. Gould del et lith._ _C. Hullmandel Imp._ ] CLIMACTERIS RUFA, _Gould_. Rufous Tree-Creeper. _Climacteris rufa_, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 149. _Jin-nee_, Aborigines of the mountain districts of Western Australia. In its robust form and general contour this new species closely resembles the _Climacteris scandens_, but from which it is readily distinguished by the rufous colouring of its plumage. It is an inhabitant of Western Australia, and is a beautiful analogue of the _C. scandens_ of the eastern coast. It is a common bird at Swan River, where Mr. Gilbert states it is generally most abundant in the white-gum forests abounding with the white ant: it ascends the smooth bark of the _Eucalypti_, and traverses round the larger branches with the greatest facility, feeding, like the other members of the genus, upon insects of various kinds. Mr. Gilbert also states that it is frequently to be seen on the ground, searching for ants and their larvæ, and in this situation presents a most grotesque appearance, from its waddling gait, which, to use his own words, is “between a hop and a shuffle, at the same time erecting and puffing out its head-feathers; when disturbed it ascends rather rapidly to the extremity of some lofty dead branch. “Its note is a single piercing cry, uttered more rapidly and loudly when the bird is disturbed, and having a very singular and striking effect amidst the silence and solitude of the forest. “At times it flies rather swiftly, but appears to be very soon tired, for after flying two or three hundred yards it begins to droop, as if from fatigue; it consequently never takes long flights, merely resorting to this mode of progression to move from tree to tree: during flight the motion of the wings is equal until the bird begins to descend.