AMYTIS STRIATUS.
Striated Wren.
Amytis textilis, Less. Traité d’Orn., p. 454. pl. 67. fig. 2.
Dasyornis striatus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VII. p. 143.
The only specimen I procured of this little bird in a recent state, was shot while I was traversing the Lower Namoi; it appeared to give preference to a loose sandy soil studded with high rank grass, which, growing in tufts, left the interspaces quite bare: through the natural labyrinth thus formed the Striated Wren ran with amazing rapidity, and it was only by forcing it to take wing that I succeeded in killing the one I obtained, which on dissection proved to be a male, and which served for the upper figure in my Plate: the other figure is supposed to represent the female; but as this can only be ascertained by the internal examination of a recent specimen, and no opportunity for so doing has yet occurred, this point must, for the present, remain undecided. All the specimens I have seen from New South Wales were in the red state of plumage, which goes far towards proving that this bird is really distinct from Amytis textilis.
Nothing has yet been ascertained respecting its nidification: its food, like that of the Textile Wren, consists of insects of various kinds.
Upper surface fine rusty red, each feather with a line of buffy white bounded on each side by black down the centre; line beneath the eye black; ear-coverts black, striated with white; wings and tail brown, margined with light reddish brown; base of the primaries rust-red, forming a conspicuous patch; chin and throat white; feathers of the chest buffy white, with two lines of brown, one down each side the stem; under surface rust-red, some of the feathers with a stripe of white down the centre; tail dark brown, indistinctly barred with a still darker tint, margined with lighter brown; irides hazel; bill dark horn-colour; feet brownish lead-colour.
The Plate represents a male and female of the natural size.