Description of a New Acanthiza from Western Australia.
(Honorary Ornithologist, Perth Museum, Western Australia).
A new Acanthiza was secured by Mr. Fred. Lawson at Wurarga, Yalgoo Goldfields, Murchison, on the 1st September last. Wurarga is about 100 miles inland from the Western coast, well beyond the confines of the characteristic rain-belt, and in about the same latitude as the boundary line between Queensland and New South Wales.
The new species is closely allied to Acanthiza chrysorrhoa (Gould), and bears, in my opinion, affinity in the same degree to that species as A. tenuirostris (Zietz) does to A. reguloides (Vig. and Hors.) It is, in fact, a pallid and miniature form of A. chrysorrhoa. I do not declare it to be the Western form of the latter species, as our coastal form in temperate districts much resembles the Eastern one, but rather regard it as the northern and interior one. The points of distinction between the two species are many, but the principal ones are these:—The new bird is much smaller; its under surface is almost uniform white; and its whole upper surface generally is lighter in colour. In particular, the forehead band is better defined, and conspicuously white; the crown of the head is not so dark; the white spots of the head are fewer; the sides of the head and cheeks are white; an obscure nuchal band of light greyish-brown and a mantle of dingy olive-grey take the place of the rich olive-yellowish of the upper surface of the coastal and Eastern species; the rump is not yellow, but the same colour as the mantle, and the upper tail coverts are lighter yellow; the basal halves of the tail feathers are white and not yellow, and the terminal halves of some only of them are tipped with white, and that very narrowly; and the irides are dull brown, and not greyish-white or light yellow. Three adult birds have been secured, two males and one female, the latter and one of the males being a breeding pair. Mr. Lawson says the birds are far from common.
The specific description is as follows:—
Male.—The frontal band, lores, throat, cheeks, chest, abdomen, sides of body, under wing coverts, and under tail coverts white, except a very faint cream-coloured tinge on chest and sides of body; a dusky spot in front of eye; ear coverts pale grey, with whitish margins; feathers of crown blackish-brown, a few of the feathers having white-spotted tips, the remainder with pale grey margins; feathers of the hinder crown brown, with pale grey margins; an indistinct nuchal band of greyish-brown extends from ear covert to ear covert; mantle and rump dingy greyish-olive; wings dark brown, the secondaries with paler brown margins; upper tail coverts light chrome-yellow, with white bases to tail feathers; latter blackish-brown, with only two or three of the undermost feathers tipped white, and those very
