COLLURICINCLA PARVULA,Gould.Little Colluricincla.
Colluricincla parvula, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., May 27, 1845.
This species, to which I have given the name ofparvula, from the circumstance of its being the smallest of the genus that has come under my notice, is a native of Port Essington and the neighbouring parts of the northern coast of Australia. Mr. Gilbert, to whose notes I must refer for all that is known about it, states that it is an inhabitant of the thickets; is an extremely shy bird, and is generally seen on or near the ground. Its note is a fine thrush-like tone, very clear, loud and melodious. The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects of various kinds, but principally of coleoptera. The nest and eggs were brought me by a native; they were taken from the hollow part of a tree about four feet from the ground; the former, which was too much injured to be preserved, was formed of small twigs and narrow strips of the bark of aMelaleuca. The eggs were two in number, of a beautiful pearly flesh-white, regularly spotted all over with dull reddish orange and umber-brown; like the eggs of the other species of the genus, they are also sprinkled over with bluish markings, which appear as if beneath the surface of the shell; their medium length is one inch, and breadth nine lines.
The sexes are so nearly alike in plumage, that they are not readily distinguished from each other; but the male is somewhat larger than his mate.
All the upper surface, wings and tail olive-brown; a faint line over the eye and the chin white; all the under surface pale buff, the feathers of the throat and breast with a broad stripe of brown down the centre; irides dark brownish red; bill blackish grey; tarsi bluish grey.
The figures are of the natural size.