GERYGONE PERSONATA, Gowda.
Masked Gerygone.

Gerygone personata, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc. 1866, p. 217.

 

Tue accompanying illustration represents one of the novelties lately transmitted to me by my brother-in-
law, Charles Coxen, Esq., of Brisbane. It was procured in the Cape York district, through, as I believe,
the instrumentality of the Messrs. Jardine, father and sons. This new species, together with the other leaf-
loving little birds to which the generic term of Gerygone has been applied, constitute a very marked group
in the avifauna of Australia. Most, if not all, of them frequent the smaller branches of trees growing in the
brushes, where they flit about, like the Wood-Wren of our own island, and live on the aphides and other
minute insects which there abound, and which they capture in the air or seek for among the foliage : and we
know that some of the species also feed upon larve of various kinds. Generally speaking, the sexes are
alike ; but on this point I have no certain information with regard to the present bird, of which I have
as yet seen only the single example figured in two positions on the accompanying Plate.

As stated in my ‘ Handbook,’ all the known species of the genus are of small size, unobtrusive in colour,
sprightly in their movements, and but little skilled in singing. The Masked Gerygone differs in so many
particulars from all others yet discovered, that it is rendered conspicuously distinct from every one of
them.

Crown and all the upper surface olive-green ; throat and chest deep olive-brown ; behind each nostril a
spot of white; a stripe of white also descends from the base of the bill down each side of the neck, and
separates the deep olive-brown of the throat from the lighter olive of the ear-coverts ; axilla, all the under
surface of the body, and the under tail-coverts delicate yellow ; wings and tail olive-brown ; bill and legs
olive-black.

Total length 3° inches, bill 4, wing 2¢, tail 14, tarsi 7.

The figures are of the natural size.

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