ACROCEPHALUS LONGIROSTRIS, Gould.
Long-billed Sedge-Warbler.
Calamoherpe longirostris, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIII. p. 20.
Gooȑ-jee-gooȑ-jee, Aborigines of the lowland districts of Western Australia.
The present bird, which I have designated longirostris, is the largest of the two species of Acrocephalus known to inhabit Australia.
It is a native of the western portion of the country, where I learn from Mr. Gilbert’s notes that “it is to be found in all the dense reed-beds bordering the river and lakes around Perth, but is so shy, particularly the female, that it scarcely ever shows itself above the reeds. I have remarked also that it never wanders many yards from the nest, which is placed on four or five upright reeds growing in the water at about two feet from the surface. It is of a deep cup-shaped form, and is composed of the soft skins of reeds and dried rushes. The breeding-season comprises the months of August and September. The eggs are four in number, of a dull greenish white, blotched all over, but particularly at the larger end, with large and small irregularly shaped patches of olive, some being darker than the others, the lighter-coloured ones appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell; they are three-quarters of an inch in length by five-eighths of an inch in breadth.
“It is almost always singing both night and day, and its song is more beautiful and melodious than that of any other Australian bird with which I am acquainted; being in many parts very like and certainly not inferior to that of the far-famed Nightingale of Europe.
“The stomach is tolerably muscular, and the food consists of coleopterous and other kinds of insects.”
Faint line over the eye fawn-colour; all the upper surface reddish brown, becoming more rufous on the upper tail-coverts; primaries and tail deep brown, fringed with rufous; chin whitish; all the under surface deep fawn-colour; irides yellowish brown.
The figures are of the natural size.