NI) EGU IO FOTOS GES OIE TS

PSOPHODES NIGROGULARIS, Gow.
Black-throated Psophodes.

Psophodes nigrogularis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., January 23, 1844.

 

Tue addition of a second species to the genus Psophodes will be hailed with pleasure by every one
who makes the science of ornithology a matter of study; nor will its discovery be a subject of surprise
to us, as it is only another illustration of that beautiful law of representation which is conspicuously
carried out in Australia. The habitat of the present bird will doubtless be hereafter found to be as
strictly confined to the western part of the continent as that of the P. crepitans is to the eastern. As yet
only a single example has reached me, and in all probability no other specimen has ever fallen by the gun
of any individual. It is to Mr. Gilbert’s perseverance that science is indebted for the knowledge of this
new bird, and his notes which accompanied the specimen (a male) I here transcribe :—* Inhabits thickets of
a small species of Leptospermum growing among the sand-hills which run parallel with and adjacent to the
beach. It utters a peculiar harsh and grating song which it is quite impossible to describe, and which is so
different from that of every other bird I ever heard or am acquainted with, that I shall have no difficulty in
recognizing it again wherever I may hear it. I heard it for the first time, together with the notes of many
other birds equally strange to me, in the vicinity of the Wongan Hills a few weeks back, but could not
then obtain a sight of the bird, although I knew from its singular and never to be mistaken note that it
was only a few yards from me.”

 

Plumage of the upper surface olive ; under surface ashy, passing into brown on the flanks and white on
the centre of the abdomen ; primaries brown; tail light olive-brown, the four lateral feathers crossed near
the extremity with a band of black, and tipped with white ; throat deep black, with a stripe of white from
the angle of the lower mandible, just within the black; bill dark horn-colour ; irides dark brown; feet
dark horn-colour.

The figures are of the natural size.