CINCLOSOMA CINNAMOMEUS, Gould.
Cinnamon-coloured Cinclosoma.
Cinclosoma cinnamomeus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part XIV. p. 68.
We are indebted to the researches of that enterprising traveller Captain Sturt for our knowledge of this new Cinclosoma, which is the more interesting as forming an additional species of a singular group of Ground-Thrushes peculiar to Australia, of which only two were previously known. The specimen from which my figure is taken now forms part of the collection at the British Museum, and we learn from Captain Sturt that it was the only one procured during his lengthened sojourn at the Depôt in that sterile and inhospitable country, the interior of Australia.
It is considerably smaller than either of its congeners, the C. castanotus and C. punctatum, and, moreover, differs from them in the cinnamon colouring of the greater portion of its plumage.
The whole of the upper surface, scapularies, two central tail-feathers, sides of the breast and flanks cinnamon-brown; wing-coverts jet-black, each feather largely tipped with white; above the eye a faint stripe of white; lores and throat glossy black, with a large oval patch of white seated within the black, beneath the eye; under surface white, with a large arrow-shaped patch of glossy black on the breast; feathers on the sides of the abdomen with a broad stripe of black down the centre; lateral tail-feathers jet-black, largely tipped with pure white; under tail-coverts black for four-fifths of their length on the outer web, their inner webs and tips white; eyes brown; tarsi olive; toes black.
The accompanying Plate represents the bird in two positions of the natural size.