SITTELLA LEUCOCEPHALA, Gould.
White-headed Sittella.
Sittella leucocephala, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 152; and in Syn. of Birds of Australia, Part IV.
My collection contains three specimens of this new species of Sittella, two of which were received from the neighbourhood of Moreton Bay and the other was procured during Dr. Leichardt’s overland expedition to Port Essington, Mr. Gilbert having killed it near Peak-Range Camp on the 27th of January 1845; the latter, which is figured on the right-hand side of the plate, differs from the former in the greater purity of the white colouring of the head, and in the darker tint of the striæ which run down the centre of each of the feathers on the breast; and it is possible that it may hereafter prove to be distinct.
Head and neck pure white; upper surface greyish brown with darker centres; under surface greyish white, with a stripe of brownish black down the centre of each feather; wings dark brown, crossed by a band of pale rusty red; tail brownish black, the middle feathers slightly, and the outer ones largely tipped with white; upper tail-coverts white, the lateral feathers with a patch of dark brown in the centre; under tail-coverts brown, tipped with white; irides greenish yellow; base of the bill, nostrils and eyelash orange-yellow.
The figures are of the natural size; the one with the white head being a female, as ascertained by dissection.