PARDALOTUS QUADRAGINTUS, Gould.
Forty-spotted Pardalote.
Pardalotus quadragintus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 148; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
Forty-spot, Colonists of Van Diemen’s Land.
This species is peculiar to Van Diemen’s Land, where it inhabits the almost impenetrable forests which cover that island, particularly those of its southern portion. It is I think less numerous than its congener, the Pardalotus affinis, and appears to confine itself more exclusively to the highest gum-trees than that species. I found it very abundant in the gulleys under Mount Wellington, and observed it breeding in a hole in one of the loftiest trees, at about forty feet from the ground; I afterwards took a perfectly developed white egg from the body of a female killed on the 5th of October. The weight of this little bird was rather more than a quarter of an ounce; the stomach was muscular, and contained the remains of the larvæ of lepidoptera, which with coleoptera and other insects constitute its food.
It has a simple piping kind of note of two syllables.
In its actions it much resembles the Tits of Europe, creeping and clinging among the branches in every direction.
The eggs are white and nearly round in form, being seven lines and a half long and six broad.
The sexes are so much alike in colour, that a separate description is unnecessary.
Crown of the head and all the upper surface bright olive-green, each feather obscurely margined with brown; wings brownish black, all the feathers except the first and second primaries having a conspicuous spot of pure white near their extremities; tail blackish grey, the extreme tips of the feathers being white; cheeks and under tail-coverts yellowish olive; throat and under surface greyish white, passing into olive on the flanks; irides dark brown; bill brownish black; feet brown.
The figures are of the natural size.