Its food is seeds of various grasses and berries, and it is very gentle, flitting from one branch to another when disturbed.

The head, sides of neck, and breast are delicate gray ; back, Aving-coverts, rump, and upper tail-coverts, brown; feathers of back of neck rufous banded with black on the ends; two middle tail-feathers, dark-gray, rest reddish-brown at base, and largely tipped with white.

This is the largest species of the genus.

Cuneata, also from Australia, is a beautiful little species, which makes a frail but pretty nest from the stalks of flowering grasses, crossed and woven together.

One was composed of a small species of Composita, and placed on the overhanging grasses of Xanthorrhea.