CIIL AMVDUIlKHA. 



43 



Consequent upon Dr. Ramsay's examination of the type oi Clilantydodcvn occipitalis, m the 

 ISritish Museum, in 1883. in which lie shared the hehef previously held by Dr. R. B. Sharpe/'= 

 that it was only a fine old adult male of C. nuuulntn, the ranf;;e of the latter species was extended 

 to Cape York. • The tvpe of C. occipitalis was stated by Mr. H. W. Janson. the dealer who sold it 

 to Gould in Januarx', 1S72, to ha\'e formed part of a collection made by Mr. Jardiue at Port 

 Albany, North Australia. I am of the opinion that the bird was obtained in Western Xew 

 South Wales. If Gould's figure of this species in his "Birds of New Guinea"; is not an 

 exagg;erated one, it differs from C. mnculata in not only having a larger frill on the nape, but 

 in ha\ing it surrounded by a blackish-brown band distinctly spotted with white. The latter, 

 however, was probably done by the artist to enhance the distinctive character of the frill, for in 

 Dr. Sharpe's "Monograph of the Paradiseidas and Ptilonorhynchida- " the same figure is used, 

 but this band and its markings are much more subdued in form and colour. I have a specimen 

 now before me, otherwise agreeing with Gould's figure of this species. It is a fine old adult 

 freshly moulted male of C. maculata, and was obtained by Mr. James Ramsay, near Louth, 

 in Western New South Wales. Wing, 6 inches. 



Mr, J. .\. Thorpe informs me that when at Somerset, in 1867, he saw Mr. F. Jardine shocjt at 

 a species of Chlamvdodcra that was sitting on a fence near his house, and which eventually fell 

 into some tall grass about a hundred yards away. By a diligent search, the former succeeded 

 in finding the bird whicli, he states, was a male of the large pink-naped species then known as 

 C. nuchalis. but since separated by Gould under the name of C. oricntaUs. Mr. Thorpe obtamed 

 another similar specimen in open grassy country about fifteen miles from Cape York. 1 he 

 Spotted Bower-bird iC. maculataj, or the species described by Gould under the name of 

 C. occipitalis, he did not meet with during his se\enteen months' residence in the Cape York 

 District. Mr. Bertie L. Jardine also informs me that C. oncntalis is the only pink-naped 

 Bower-bird that he has met with on the Cape York Peninsula. Personally I have never 

 handled a properly localised specimen of C. inaciilata from further north than Leilavale Station, 

 on the Fullerton River, about thirty miles east of Cloncurry, where. Dr. W. Macgillivray informs 

 me, these birds are not uncommon, and nest during the wet season, January and February, 

 generally in Gidyea scrub. Doubtless its range may extend to the southern portion of the 

 adjoining district of Cook, and of which the Cape York Peninsula forms the northern extremity. 



In South Australia, the Spotted Bower-bird is apparently a rare species, and appears to be 

 confined to the Murray River scrubs, a situation similar to that in which it is found in the 

 adjoining portion of North-western Victoria. Neither Dr. A. M. Morgan, nor Mr. A. Zietz, the 

 Assistant-Director of the South Australian Museum, have met with it in South Australia. Reply- 

 ing to an inquiry of mine, Mr. Zietz writes as follows:— "In regard to Chlamydodcra maculata. we 

 have no specimens from this State in our Museum Collection. All I know about its occurrence 

 in South .\ustralia is the information received from a settler, resident at Morgan, on the Murray 

 River, who with his son was visiting the Museum. On showing them our collection of bird- 

 skins, both recognised at once C. maculata as a species known to them as 'Cabbage-birds,' 

 from their destructive habit of eating the leaves of those plants in their kitchen garden, and 

 which these birds were constantly visiting. In looking over some lists for further evidence, I 

 found that six specimens were obtained in the scrub at Overland Corner, on the Murray River, in 

 1883, by the late Mr. F. W. Andrews, a collector of the South .Australian Museum. I myself 

 have ne\er seen any specimens of C. maculata, with a statement where they had been collected, 

 except some two dozen skins obtained by the late Mr. James Cockerell, in the Murray River 

 scrubs, near Mildura, \'ictoria." Mr. Zietz has kindly forwarded me the list of specimens 



' Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 'Vol, vi„ p. 390 (1881), 



t Proc, Linn. Soc X.S.W., (Second Series), Vol. i., p. 1157 (i»86?. Tab. List .\ust. Bds., p. 11 (18SS). 



; Bds, New Guinea, Vol, i., pi, 45 (1879). 



