CYSTICOLA MAGNA, Gowda:

Cysticola campestris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 20.

 

I am indebted to the kindness of Hugh E. Strickland, Esq., for the loan of a fine example of this bird
for the purpose of figuring in the present work. It is one of the largest species of the group, and hence
I have assigned to it the distinctive appellation of magna. Nothing whatever is known of its habits and
manners, but we may reasonably infer that they are very similar to those of its congeners. The precise
locality it inhabits is also unknown; Mr. Strickland having obtained it from a general collection of
Australian birds, without the situation in which it had been procured being attached to it.

Head rusty red; back and wing-coverts brownish grey; all the feathers of the upper surface with a
broad stripe of dark brown down the centre ; wings blackish brown, the primaries margined externally with
rusty red and the secondaries edged all round with brownish grey; tail reddish brown, all but the two
centre feathers with a large spot of black near the tip; all the under surface pale buff.

The Plate represents the bird of the natural size.