EOPSALTRIA LEUCOGASTER, Gould.
White-bellied Robin.
ESpsattria leucogaster, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc.,.February 24, 1846.
T he White-bellied Robin is a native of Western Australia, but is only to be met with in the hilly portions
of the country. Mr. Gilbert states that thé first specimen he procured was killed on - the Darling
range, near the gorge o f the River Murray, at an elevation o f about seven or eight hundred feet, and that
he afterwards met with it on the southern extremity o f the same range, between Vasse and Augusta, but
that he never observed it on the lower grounds between the mountain range and the coast. Like the other
species of the genus, it was constantly seen clinging to the bark o f large upright trees, or straight and small
stems, in search o f its insect food. It is extremely quiet and secluded in its habits, is almost exclusively
confined to the neighbourhood of small mountain streams, where scarcely any other sound is heard than
the rippling and gurgling o f the water over the rocks, and on the slightest approach it immediately
secretes itself among the thick scrub or brushwood. Its song very closely resembles that o f the Petroicoe.
Immediately before the eye a small triangular-shaped spot of black ; above the eye a faint line o f greyish
white ; crown ’ o f the head, all the upper surface, wings and tail dark slate-grey ; the lateral tail-feathers
largely tipped with white on their inner wehs ; all the under surface white ; irides dark brown ; hill and
feet black.
The Plate represents the bird o f the natural size, on one o f the beautiful and rare plants o f Western
Australia, a species of Anigomnthus, the distinctive appellation o f which I have not been able to ascertain.