EOPSALTRIA CAPITO, Gowda.

Large-headed Robin.

Eopsaltria Capito, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., part xix. p. 285.

 

Tur great country of Australia is characterized by many striking and varied physical features; in none
other, I believe, does the earth’s surface present so many different aspects, or are the contrasts more strongly
marked, the central area being either a sterile waste of burning sand or an inland sea, as a drouthy or rainy
season prevails; while on the inner slopes of the mountain ranges towards this area, there exist beautiful
and fertile downs richly clothed with grass, interspersed with Hucalyptt and Angophore, presenting a park-
like picture to the eye. Again, the outer slopes of the high ranges which skirt along the south and eastern
coasts, at a distance of from forty to sixty miles from the sea, have in the course of time changed into a
soil so rich and deep as to be favourable, not only to the growth of the largest kinds of Eucalyptz, but to
magnificent cedars, fig-trees and palms of two or three species. Favoured by an aspect which commands
the rays of the sun, and by humidity from the sea, the vegetation here becomes of that dense and peculiar
character technically known in New South Wales by the name of Brushes; these districts are tenanted
by a bird-life equally peculiar; so that the fauna of the brushes is as distinct from that of the plains as
if hundreds of miles of sea rolled between. The unobtrusively coloured bird here represented is a native
of the brushes of the south-east coast, and is tolerably plentiful in the neighbourhood of the Clarence, the
Manning and the Brisbane rivers. Its existence was not known to me when the ‘“ Birds of Australia”
were published ; and its discovery is due to the late Mr. Strange, who sent me several specimens a short
time after its completion. Of its habits nothing is known, but they are doubtless very similar to those
of the other Lépsaltrie. Like them the sexes do not differ in colour, but the female may generally be
distinguished by her somewhat smaller size.

Upper surface olive-green, inclining to brown on the head; wings and tail slaty-brown, faintly margined
with olive-green ; ear-coverts grey; lores, a line below the eye and the throat greyish white; under surface
yellow; irides hazel; bill black ; feet brownish flesh-colour.

The figures are of the natural size.
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