PARDALOTUS UROPYGIALIS,Gould.Yellow-rumped Pardalote.
Pardalotus uropygialis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VII. 1839, p. 143.
For this very beautiful Pardalote, and several other interesting birds from the north-west coast of Australia, I am indebted to the kindness of Benjamin Bynoe, Esq., Surgeon of Her Majesty’s Surveying Ship the Beagle; to Captain Wickham and the other officers of which vessel my thanks are also due for their polite attention to my wishes, and the promise of communicating to me any novelties they might procure during their survey of the north-west coast.
The Yellow-rumped Pardalote is easily distinguished from every other species of the group with which I am acquainted, amounting to seven or eight in number, by the bright yellow colouring of the rump, by the rich spot of orange before the eye, by having a shorter wing, and by being more diminutive in size than any of the others, with the exception ofPardalotus punctatus. It is more closely allied to myPardalotus melanocephalusthan any other species; but as the latter is without the yellow on the rump, and has a larger bill, I am induced to regard them as distinct.
I am unable to give any account of its habits and manners, but in these respects it doubtless closely assimilates to the other members of its group.
Crown of the head, stripe before and behind the eye black; lores rich orange; a mark from above the eye to the occiput, chest and centre of the abdomen white; throat and cheeks delicate crocus-yellow; rump and upper tail-coverts sulphur-yellow; back of the neck and back olive-grey; wings black, the external webs of the second and five following primaries white at the base; tips of the spurious wing scarlet; tail black; the three outer feathers tipped with white, the white spreading largely over the inner web of the outer feathers; bill black; feet lead colour.
The sexes do not differ in size or in the colour of their plumage.
The figures are of the natural size.