MONARCHA CARINATA.
Carinated Flycatcher.
Muscipeta carinata, Swains. Zool. 111., 1st ser., pl. 147.
Drymophila carinata, Temm. Pl. Col. 418. f. 2.
Monarcha carinata, Vig. and Horsf. in Linn. Trans., vol. xv. p. 256.—Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part II.
T h i s is a migratory bird in New South Wales, arriving in spring and departing before winter. It gives a
decided preference to thick brushy forests, such as those at Illawarra and other similar districts extending
from the Hunter to Moreton Bay. It is also equally abundant in the thick brushes which clothe the
sloping mountains o f the interior. During the spring or pairing time it becomes very animated, and is
continually flying about and beneath the branches of the trees; it does not capture insects, like the true
Flycatchers, on the wing, but obtains them while hopping about from branch to branch, after the manner
of the Pachycephalce. It has a rather loud whistling note, which being often repeated tends considerably to
enliven the woods in which it dwells.
I dissected many examples in the bright plumage, all o f which proved to be males, yet I could not fully
satisfy myself whether the upper bird in the Plate is a female, a young bird, or a distinct species; I believe,
however, that it will prove to be the female.
The Monarcha carinata does not inhabit Van Diemen’s Land or South Australia; its great nursery is
evidently the south-eastern portion of the country: a distinct but nearly-allied species inhabits the north
coast, o f which I have specimens in my collection from the neighbourhood of Cape York.
Forehead, lores and throat jet-black; all the upper surface g r ey ; wings and tail brown; sides of the
neck and the chest light g rey; abdomen and under tail-coverts rufous ; bill beautiful light blue-grey, the
tip paler than the hase ; legs bluish lead-colour; irides black ; inside of the mouth greyish blue.
In all probability, the females and the young males of the year are destitute o f the black mark on the face,
and the upper figure is that of a female or a male in the plumage o f the first year.
The figures are o f the size of life.