PARDALOTUS RUBRICATUS, Gowda.
Red-lored Pardalote.

Pardalotus rubricatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 149; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.

 

Aut the information I have to communicate respecting this new and beautiful Pardalote, which I have named
rubricatus, from the red spot before the eye, is, that I procured a single specimen at Liverpool from among
some other birds, all of which had been brought from the east coast of Australia: no other example
has come under my notice, and it may probably be the only one in Europe. It belongs to the same section
of the Pardaloti as the P. punctatus and P. quadragintus, and like them is distinguished from the other
members of the group by the absence of the sealing-wax-like tips of the spurious wing-feathers,—a character
which is constant in the P. uropygialis, P. affinis, P. striatus and P. melanocephalus. tis the largest species
of the genus yet discovered, all the members of which are confined to Australia; and is readily distinguished
from its near allies the P. punctatus and P. quadragintus by the larger size of the spots on the crown, and
by its having less yellow on the throat than the former, and more than the latter.

As nothing whatever is at present known respecting it, it is one of those species I would especially
recommend to the notice of those favourably situated for observing it.

Forehead crossed by a narrow band of dirty white ; crown and back of the head deep black, each fea-
ther having a spot of white near its extremity ; back of the neck, back, wing-coverts and rump brownish
grey ; wings dark brown, margined with pale brown, the spurious wing, a small portion of the base of the
primaries, and the outer margins of the secondaries fine golden orange ; immediately before the eye a spot
of bright, fiery orange ; above and behind the eye a stripe of buff; upper tail-coverts bright olive-green ;
tail deep blackish brown, the extreme tips of the feathers being white; throat and abdomen greyish white ;
chest bright yellow ; upper mandible and legs brown, under mandible greyish white.

The bird is represented in two positions, of the natural size, on a plant gathered in New South Wales.