250 SYLVIID.E. 



opinion he has since sent me several skins, and among them the adult male described above, 

 obtained near Meerenie Bluff, Central Australia. This specimen agrees fairly well with 

 Gould's figures of Amytis texiiUs, except that it has not any rust-red patch on each side 

 of the breast, but this is apparent in a female shot at the nest. Others, obtained in South 

 Australia and Western New South Wales, show more or less of this rust-red patch, the throat 

 also being isabelline, and which together with the upper breast, is more distinctly streaked with 

 white. None, however, approach any way near in depth of colour to what I regard as the 

 true Amytis tcxtilis of Quoy and Gaimard. These authors, in the Atlas of the "Voyage of the 

 Uranie," also Lesson in his "Traite d'Ornithologie," represent A. tcxtilis with the bnder as well 

 as the upper surface distinctly streaked with white, while Gould figures the birds he procured 

 on the plains bordering the Lower Namoi River in New South Wales with the under parts 

 like those of the present species. 



Among a collection of birds received for examination from the South .Australian Museum, 

 and made by Dr. A. M. Morgan and Dr. A. Chenery during a trip from Port Augusta to the 

 Gawler Ranges in .\ugust, igo2, was a single example of A. modcslci, of which Dr. ^Morgan 

 remarks: — "This species was seen occasionally from Nonning to Yardea. It was always found 

 in large dark-leaved species of saltbush, very shy and active, hopping from bush to bush with 

 astonishing rapidity. We did not see them attempt to fly." 



Applicable to the present species are the following notes of the late Mr. K. M. Bennett: — 

 "Amytis tcxtilis is an inhabitant of the dense mallee scrubs in the neighbourhood of Mossgiel 

 and Ivanhoe, in the Central District of New South Whales. I should have said were in- 

 habitants, for although some few years ago they were numerous there, they have from some 

 unexplained cause now almost entirely disappeared. For the past two years, 1885-6, I have 

 been continually travelling over the country in which they were formerly abundant, and during 

 all that time I have only met with a pair of these birds. This disappearance is, 1 think, due 

 to their weak powers of flight, and to the occupation and stocking of the country and the 

 burning off of the large areas of dense porcupine grass amongst which they could always be 

 found. In former years I have often found their nests; they were generally placed in a tussock 

 of porcupine grass, but sometimes I have discovered them in brush fences running through 

 the mallee." 



A specimen now before me, collected by the late ^Sh. K. II. Bennett in the Mossgiel 

 District, is not A. tcxtilis (Quoy et Gaim.), but the species I have distinguished under the name 

 of Amytis modesta. 



Nests of this species, found by Mr. C. E. Cowle are described as being similar structures 

 to those of ^. textilis, difficult of removal, and are usually built under a spinifex tussock. 



Eggs two in number for a sitting, oval in form, the shell being close-grained, smooth, and 

 slightly lustrous. They are of a reddish-white ground colour, which is freckled and spotted 

 with rich reddish-brown, more abundantly on the thicker end. A set of two, taken by Mr. 

 C. E. Cowle near Illamurta, Central Australia, measures as follows:— Length (A) o-8 x o-66 

 inches; (B) o-8 x 0-67 mches. 



Amytis striata. 



BLACK-CHEEKED GKASS-WREN. 

 Dasyornia striatus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1839, p. 14.3. 

 Amytis striatus, Gould, Bds Austr., fol.. Vol. TIL, pi. 29 (1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. 



L, p. 337 (1865). 

 Amytis striata, Sharps, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VII., p. 107 (1883). 



