SERICORNIS HUMILIS, Gould.
Sombre-coloured Sericornis.
Sericornis hwnilis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part Y. p. 133 ; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.
T his species is very generally dispersed over Van Diemen’s Land, and as I have found it on some of
the islands in Bass’s Straits, it is not improbable that it may also extend its range to the southern coast of
the continent of Australia. Ravines, deep glens, water-courses covered with dense herbage and thickly-
wooded copses are the situations congenial to the habits of this bird ; those that are most humid or damp
being apparently preferred to any other; consequently, although it is very abundant and its distribution
very general, it is a bird that is less seen, and one whose habits are less known than almost any other of
the indigenous birds o f the island. In many of its actions it closely resembles the Wren ( Troglodytes
Eiiropasus), particularly in its manner of hopping about on the ground, and from stone to stone, with its
tail erect in search of insects, upon which it solely subsists; it also assimilates to the Wren in the form,
construction and situation o f its nest; but in the number and colour o f its eggs there is much difference.
It rarely flies more than a few yards at a time, but secretes itself in the midst of the little thicket in which
it has taken up its abode. There is little difficulty in finding the n e st; for although it is in general very
artfully concealed among the herbage at the base of a tree, on the edge o f a shelving bank, or among the
thick tangle of the scrub, yet by attentively watching the old birds for a short time, they will soon indicate
by their actions the immediate locality o f the nest. The male constantly cheers his mate with a pretty
lively song, which, although neither loud nor voluminous, serves to give life to its secluded abode, which in
many instances is in the depths o f the forests, where few sounds are heard except the monotonous note of
the Honey-sucker, and the perpetual rippling o f the rivulet as it steals over the stony bed o f the gully.
It is sometimes seen, particularly towards evening, to leave its lurking-place and seek any little open part
or glade in the forest, doubtless attracted to such situations in search o f food.
The sexes present no difference whatever in the colouring o f the plumage, consequently dissection is
necessary to distinguish them.
The nest is of rather a large size and o f a domed form, outwardly composed o f any coarse materials at
hand, such as leaves, tufts o f grass, roots, &c., the interior being formed o f similar substances, but of a
finer kind, and the whole carefully lined with feathers. The eggs, which are large for the size o f the bird,
are three in number, of a reddish white, curiously freckled and marked flf over with reddish brown, particularly
at the larger end, where the markings assume the form o f a zone; they are ten and a half lines long
by eight lines broad.
Lores blackish brown, above which an obscure stripe of white; crown of the head and all the upper surface,
wings and tail dark olive-brown with a tinge of red, which becomes more conspicuous on the rump
and tail-feathers ; spurious wing blackish brown, each feather margined with white; throat greyish white,
spotted with blackish brown ; chest and centre of the abdomen brownish yellow, the former singularly but
more obscurely spotted than the throat; flanks chestnut-brown; bill blackish brown ; legs dark brown;
irides straw-yellow.
The Plate represents the two sexes o f the natural size.