COLLURICINCLA RUFIVENTRIS, Gowa
Bulf-bellied Colluricincla.
Colluricincla rufiventris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VIII. p. 164.

Goo-dee-lung, Aborigines of Western Australia.

Thrush, of the Colonists.

 

Tuts species is about the size of the Colluricincla harmonica, for which at a first glance it might be mistaken,

but from which on comparison it will be found to differ in the following particulars :—the whole of the

upper surface is pure grey instead of brown; the abdomen and under tail-coverts are deep buff instead of

greyish white; and the lores are much more distinctly marked with white. It is a native of Western
Australia, where it is to be found in all thickly wooded places, feeding as much on the ground as among
the trees and scrubs. In its actions, the positions it assumes, and in its general manners, it very closely
resembles the Common Thrush of Europe. Its voice is a very loud, full and rich swelling note with a few
connecting sounds, the whole much resembling, but not equalling in melody, the call-note of the Kuropean
Thrush.

It breeds in the latter part of September and the beginning of October, and the nest, which is generally
placed in the hollow part of a high tree, is formed of dried strips of gum-tree bark very closely packed and
deep, and is sometimes lined with soft grasses. The eggs, which are two or three in number, are of a
beautiful bluish or pearly white, with large blotches of reddish olive-brown and dark grey, the latter
appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell; the medium length of the eggs is one inch and one line by
ten lines in breadth.

Mr. Gilbert mentions that upon two occasions he found the eggs of this bird in old nests of Pomatorhinus
superciliosus.

The stomach is muscular, and the food consists of insects, principally of the coleopterous order, and
seeds.

Lores greyish white ; crown of the head and all the upper surface deep grey, slightly tinged with olive ;
primaries and tail dark brown, margined with brownish grey; throat and under surface darkish grey,
passing into buff on the vent and under .tail-coverts ; all the feathers of the under surface have a narrow
dark line down the centre ; thighs grey ; irides dark reddish brown ; bill blackish brown ; feet dark greenish
leaden grey.

The figures represent a male and a female of the natural size.

VA