OCR Text |
Show 1877.] NORTH-EASTERN QUEENSLAND. 351 290. MELITHREPTES LATIOR. Melithreptus leetior, Gould, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xvi. p. 287. 291. CALOPSITTA NOVA-HOLLANDIA. Calopsitta novce-hollandia?, Gould, Handbk. B. Austr. ii. p. 292. PTILOSCLERA VERSICOLOR. Ptilosclera versicolor, Vigors ; Gould, Handbk. B. Austr. ii. p. 98. Some fine specimens were obtained on Carron's Creek. This brings my list of Birds of North-eastern Queensland &c. to a close. I might have added several more to it had I been enabled to remain longer in some of the inland districts; and I regret also that I did not shoot specimens of some of the species. These consequently I have not been able to determine with that degree of certainty I should like; for I find in one or two instances the birds I then took to be identical with our New-South-Wales species have turned out to be new. This is the case with Oreocincla, sp. No. 110, which I find to be O. iodura of Mr. Gould. I also observed that the Sittella leucocephala, from the neighbourhood of Port Denison, has a white band through the wing instead of a reddish or "rusty-red" one, as described by Mr. Gould. In other respects it is almost exactly the same. I have only observed three specimens with this peculiarity, but am daily expecting a large series from Bowen, when I will make some further remarks, and give a fuller description of the bird; for the present I propose the name of albata for the Port-Denison specimens, distinguished by having a white band through the wing, commencing on the first primary and extending to the 9th quill. SITTELLA ALBATA, sp. nov. Head and neck, a small spot at the base of the primaries on the - underside of the wing, a band through the wing as far as the 9th quill, the upper tail-coverts, and the tips of all the tail-feather's except the centre two, snow-white ; under surface ashy white, with a broad dark-brown stripe down the centre of each feather ; under tail-coverts of a darker brown, tipped and margined anteriorly with white; back and scapulars brown, darker in the centres of the feathers ; wing- and tail-quills blackish brown, the former crossed with a white band as far as the ninth quill; bill at the base, the legs and feet, and skin round the eye yellow, remainder of the bill black. Length 3*7 inches, wing 3, tail 1*5, tarsi 1*7, bill 0*5, bill from gape 0*7. Finally, I may as well correct an error which occurs in the name of 'sp. no.'57, Part I. of this paper (P. Z. S. 1875, p. 584): Artamus cinereus should be Artamus albiventris, Gould. And under sp. no. 125, Stigmatops subocularis, the latter part of m y remarks refer to Stigmatops ocularis, the Sydney species. |