COLLURICINCLA BRUNNEA,Gould.Brown Colluricincla.
Colluricincla brunnea, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 164.
Men-e-loö-roo, Aborigines of Port Essington.
This bird is abundantly dispersed over the Cobourg Peninsula, and is to be met with in all the forests in the immediate neighbourhood of Port Essington, in which distant locality it represents theColluricincla harmonicaof New South Wales, theColluricincla Selbiiof Van Diemen’s Land, and theColluricincla rufiventrisof Western Australia. As might be expected, its habits and manners are very similar to those of the other species of the genus, consequently the description of those ofColluricincla harmonicais equally descriptive of those ofColluricincla brunnea.
A nest of this bird found on the 2nd of February was built in the upper part of a hollow stump, and was outwardly formed of narrow strips of the bark of theMelaleucaand lined with fine twigs. The eggs are of a pearly bluish white, spotted and blotched with markings of olive-brown and grey, the latter colour appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell; their medium length is one inch and two lines by ten lines in breadth.
It is a larger and more robust species than eitherC. harmonicaorC. rufiventris, the bill is shorter and much stouter, and the colouring is of a uniform light brown; even the primaries and tail-feathers are of the same hue.
All the upper surface pale brown; primaries and tail the same, but somewhat lighter; all the under surface brownish white, becoming almost pure white on the vent and under tail-coverts; thighs greyish brown; bill black; feet blackish brown.
The Plate represents the two sexes of the natural size.