AMYTIS STRIATUS.

Striated Wren.

Amytis textilis, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 454. pl. 67. fig. 2.
Dasyornis striatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIL. p. 143.

 

Tue only specimen I procured of this little bird in a recent state, was shot while I was traversing the
Lower Namoi; it appeared to give preference to a loose sandy soil studded with high rank grass, which,
erowing in tufts, left the interspaces quite bare: through the natural labyrinth thus formed the Striated
Wren ran with amazing rapidity, and it was only by forcing it to take wing that I succeeded in killing the
one I obtained, which on dissection proved to be a male, and which served for the upper figure in my
Plate: the other figure is supposed to represent the female; but as this can only be ascertained by the in-
ternal examination of a recent specimen, and no opportunity for so doing has yet occurred, this point must,
for the present, remain undecided. All the specimens I have seen from New South Wales were in the red
state of plumage, which goes far towards proving that this bird is really distinct from Amytis ¢eatihs.

Nothing has yet been ascertained respecting its nidification: its food, like that of the Textile Wren,
consists of insects of various kinds.

Upper surface fine rusty red, each feather with a line of buffy white bounded on each side by black down
the centre; line beneath the eye black; ear-coverts black, striated with white; wings and tail brown, mar-
gined with light reddish brown; base of the primaries rust-red, forming a conspicuous patch; chin and
throat white; feathers of the chest buffy white, with two lines of brown, one down each side the stem ;
under surface rust-red, some of the feathers with a stripe of white down the centre; tail dark brown,
indistinctly barred with a still darker tint, margined with lighter brown; irides hazel; bill dark horn-
colour; feet brownish lead-colour.

The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size.