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The Birds of Australia, Vol. 4 of 7 cover

The Birds of Australia, Vol. 4 of 7

Chapter 59: TROPIDORHYNCHUS ARGENTICEPS, Gould. Silvery-crowned Friar-bird.
By John Gould
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About This Book

This volume presents systematic descriptions and hand-colored lithographic plates of numerous Australian bird species, pairing morphological detail with notes on plumage, voice, and feeding habits. Entries summarize known localities and habitat preferences while offering comparative remarks on similar taxa and occasional nomenclatural clarifications. Specimen provenance and collector observations are cited when available to support identification. The combination of detailed species accounts and visual plates serves as a practical natural-history reference for recognizing and understanding the region's avian diversity.

TROPIDORHYNCHUS ARGENTICEPS, Gould.
Silvery-crowned Friar-bird.

Tropidorhynchus argenticeps, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part VII. 1839, p. 144.

For the first knowledge of this new species of Tropidorhynchus, science is indebted to Benjamin Bynoe, Esq., Surgeon of Her Majesty’s Surveying ship the Beagle, who, on my visiting Sydney, placed his specimens at my disposal; since my return, other examples have been sent for my use, in this work, by His Excellency Captain Grey, now Governor of South Australia.

Mr. Bynoe’s specimens were all obtained during the survey of the north-west coast, a portion of Australia the natural productions of which are but little known, and Captain Grey’s during his expedition into the interior, from the same coast.

In size the Silvery-crowned Friar-bird is somewhat inferior to the common species (Tropidorhynchus corniculatus), from which it may also he readily distinguished by the crown of the head being clothed with well-defined, small, lanceolate feathers. Of its habits and economy nothing is known; but as it is very nearly allied to the last-mentioned species, we may reasonably conclude that they are very similar.

Crown of the head silvery grey; the remainder of the head naked, and of a blackish brown; throat and all the under surface white; back, wings and tail brown; bill and feet blackish brown.

The figure is of the natural size.