Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 4 (1798).djvu/300

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XXI. Account of a New Species of Muscicapa, from New South Wales. By Major-General Thomas Davies, F.R.S. and L.S.

Read February 6, 1798.

AVING had the good fortune to procure fine specimens of the male and female of a singular bird from New South Wales, which the natives of that country call the Merion Binnion, or Cassowary-Bird, and as it is a species at present very little known, I am induced to present to the President and Members of the Linnæan Society an accurate drawing of both specimens, in hopes that it may be found worthy of their acceptance. I am sorry that I cannot at the same time furnish the Society with an accurate account of its manners. Even its genus appears to be rather difficult to determine with the certainty I could wish, and I shall therefore leave that decision to others more capable than myself. I have, as yet, classed it in my own collection with the Flycatchers, as it appears to me to approach nearest to that genus.

All the information which I have been able to procure respecting it, from Governor Philip, Colonel Nepean, and other Gentlemen, who resided some years in New South Wales, is, that it is found about Sidney and Botany-Bay, in marshy places, abounding with long grass and fine rushes, in which it hides itself very dexterously; that,