PYCNOPTILUS FLOCCOSUS, Gow.
Downy Pycnoptilus.

Pycnoptilus floccosus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., May 14, 1850.

 

Iv the Birds of Australia I instituted the genus, Hylacola, for the Acanthiza pyrrhopygia of Vigors and

Horsfield, adding thereto another species under the name of H. cauta. The present bird is allied to that

form, but still differs in so many points, that I am constrained to make it the type of a new genus, with the

appellation of Pycnopéilus, from the dense and silky character of its plumage: unfortunately I know nothing

of its habits and economy. I purchased it of Mr. Warwick, who had obtained it in a small collection of

birds said to have been formed in the interior of New South Wales towards the River Morumbidgee :

ae judging from its very thick clothing and overhanging back feathers, I conclude that, like the members of

the genus Dasyornis, it is a frequenter of the ground in dense and scrubby places; a conjecture which I

should be happy to have verified by residents in New South Wales who may be favourably situated for
observing it.

General plumage brown, inclining to rufous on the lower part of the back, upper tail-coverts and tail ;

forehead, lores, throat and breast dark reddish buff, with a very narrow crescent of dark brown at the tip

of each feather; centre of the abdomen greyish brown, crossed by crescentic bands of black; flanks and

 

vent brown, passing into deep rufous on the under tail-coverts; bill brown; base of the under mandible
fleshy brown; legs and feet fleshy brown.
The Plate represents the bird in two positions, of the natural size.

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