ATRICHIA CLAMOSA, Gould.
Noisy Brush-bird.
Atrichia clamosa, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., January 9, 1844.
F ew o f the novelties received from Australia are more interesting than the species to which I have given
the generic name o f Atrichia. It is one of the discoveries made by Mr. Gilbert, who met with it among
the dense scrubs of Western Australia, and who had his attention attracted to it by its peculiar and noisy
note long before he had an opportunity of observing i t ; and it was only after many days o f patient and
motionless watching among the scrubs that he succeeded in obtaining specimens, and these unfortunately
were shot at so short a distance from his gun that they were all much mutilated. Future research will
doubtless furnish us with some highly interesting information respecting the economy and history o f this
curious form, which is evidently destined to tenant the most dense thickets and tangled beds of dwarf
trees, and consequently, from its recluse habits, rarely to meet the gaze of civilized man.
The examples forwarded to me by Mr. Gilbert were killed between Perth and Augusta in Western
Australia, and were all males. The females will doubtless, when discovered, prove to differ but little from
their mates, except that the black mark on the breast will not be so large or conspicuous. I am led to offer
this opinion from the circumstance of one of the specimens sent being a young male, which usually resembles
the female during the first year, and in which this mark is less conspicuous than in the others.
All the upper surface, wings and tail brown-, each feather crossed by several obscure crescent-shaped bars
o f brown; the inner webs of the primaries very dark brown, without markings, and the tail freckled instead
of barred ; throat and chest reddish white, with a large irregular patch o f black on the lower part of the
throat; flanks brown ; abdomen and under tail-coverts rufous; bill horn-colour; irides dark brown.
The figures are o f the natural size.