SERICORNIS OSCULANS, Gould.
Allied Sericornis.
Sericornis osculans, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., January 27, 1847.
The Sericornis osculans inhabits South Australia, where it frequents underwoods and scrubby places, the bottom of dry water-courses, gulleys, &c.; it is naturally shy and retiring in its habits, and evades pursuit by creeping beneath the herbage and making its exit on the other side. It is most nearly allied to the S. frontalis, and is intermediate in size between that species and the S. humilis; from the former it differs in having at all times numerous longitudinal blotches of black on the throat, and from the latter in these spots being much more distinct than in that species. I have seen specimens in which the yellow tint which pervades the centre of the abdomen has given place to grey or greyish white, as shown in the centre figure of the accompanying Plate; but I have never found the tail tipped with white, as in S. maculata and S. lævigaster.
The sexes present the usual characteristic of the genus, in the absence of any black mark on the lores of the female, which are similar to the other parts of the body.
All the upper surface, wings and tail dark brown, all but the two centre feathers of the latter crossed by an obscure band of black near the extremity; spurious wing-feathers black, margined with white; lores black, above which on each side a patch of white, continued in a fine line over the eye; throat and centre of the abdomen greyish white in some and yellowish white in others, marked with a few oblong black spots on the throat.
The female is somewhat smaller in size, and has the lores brown instead of black.
The figures represent two males and a female of the natural size, the upper figure being that of the female.