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Show 976 MR. J. GOULD ON A NEW CLIMACTERIS. [Dec. 12, The species are :- CLIMACTERIS SCANDENS. Generally distributed over the south-eastern portions of Australia. CLIMACTERIS RUFA. Inhabits the neighbourhood of Swan River, Western Australia. CLIMACTERIS ERYTHROPS. The interior of New South Wales. CLIMACTERIS MELANOTA. The Gulf of Carpentaria. CLIMACTERIS MELANURA. The north coast of Australia. CLIMACTERIS LEUCOPHCEA. New South Wales. Thus every colony of that vast country, with the exception of Tasmania, is inhabited by a species of this singular form. When I commenced the study of the Australian birds, now nearly thirty years ago, only two species were known, namely C. scandens and C. leucophcea. In the interval the four others above named have been discovered; and I now give the description of a fifth, from a skin sent to me two years since by Mr. E. P. Ramsay of Dobroyde, in New South Wales, and which I should have characterized earlier, but for an impression that it was an example of C. leucophcea in an abnormal state of plumage; I now venture to do so in consequence of a second inquiry from Mr. Ramsay as to what I have called the red-rumped Climacteris. The name I propose for it is CLIMACTERIS PYRRHONOTA. Crown, forehead, and wings brown, the feathers of the former edged with a lighter tint of the same colour ; some longitudinal teardrop- like streaks of buffy white on the scapularies; wings crossed by a band of light buff; rump and upper tail-coverts rust-red, forming a conspicuous mark ; throat and chest white ; on the hinder part of the cheeks a patch of rust-red ; centre of the abdomen buffy white; flanks deep brown, with the centre of each feather greyish white ; under tail-coverts fawn-white, each feather crossed by two irregular lines of black; tail grey, the five outer feathers on each side centred with black and tipped with greyish white. Total length 5\ inches, bill \, wing 3f, tail 2\, tarsi \. In favour of its being distinct, I may remark, first, that I found the C. leucophcea very common in New South Wales, and killed many examples of both sexes without finding a trace of red on their rump-feathers ; secondly, that we rarely find rust-red to be the precursor of the fine blue-grey of a subsequent change ; and thirdly, that rust-red is a prevailing tint in some of the other species of the genus. It assimilates in size and general appearance (except in the |