EREMIORNIS. , 253 



which decreases in extent and is almost lost on the smaller outermost feathers; under wing-coverts 

 pale fulvous-brown; "bill horn colour, lighter at the base of the lower mandible; legs and feet 

 purplish-brown: iris reddish-hazel;" (Cartel-). Total length 5-7 inches, iving 207, central tail 

 feathers 2-7, outer tail feathers 17, central under tail-coverts 1-7, bill O-^G, tarsus 0:55. 



Adult female — Similar in plumage to the male, but slightly less rufescent on the upper parts. 



Distribution. — North-western Australia. 



/' |(^HI-2 present species was one of the novelties discovered by Mr. Tom Carter during his 

 -L. thirteen years residence in the neighbourhood of Point Cloates, in North-western 

 Australia. The type specimen, now in the Australian Museum, was received by me through 

 Mr. G. A. Heartland, who forwarded it for description together with the following note from 

 Mr. Carter: — "I shot two of these birds on barren rocky ranges in the dense spinifex tufts." 

 The specimen is labelled a female, and was obtained on the ist July, 1899, at North-west Cape, 

 near Exmouth Gulf. Another specimen in the Australian Museum collection was procured at 

 Point Cloates on the 8th July, 1901. Several others from the same neighbourhood have been 

 sent me for examination. I forwarded a specimen to London to Dr. P. L. Sclater, one of the 

 Editors of "The Ibis," who exhibited it at the February meeting of the "British Ornithologist's 

 Club," in 1902, and made the following remarks ■: — '' Eremiornis cartcri : Mr. North kindly sends 

 me an example of the supposed new genus and species of Australian birds. The genus is 

 closely allied to Schceiiicola, of India,! and perhaps hardly distinct, but the specimen is not in 

 very good condition, and I am unable to decide definitely upon it. It is at any rate a new 

 species, and a most interesting addition to the Australian avifauna." 



Before describing the genus Eiriiiioi'iiis, I carefully compared the specimen on which it is 

 founded with the characters given in the "Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum, "| of the 

 genus Scluriiicola and its allies, and concluded that it varied from all of them. Since then the 

 Trustees of the Australian Museum have received two specimens of Schceuicola platyiira from 

 the Director of the Travandrum Museum, India, and the species upon which Jerdon founded 

 the genus. These specimens strengthen me in my opinion that although Schceuicola and 

 Eremiornis bear a close resemblance to each other, especially in the broad tail feathers and the 

 long upper and under tail-coverts, they are quite distinct. In Schceuicola the bill is deeper and 

 more curved at the tip, the rictal bristles stout, the primaries distinctly longer than the 

 secondaries, the tail barely exceeding the length of the wing, the tarsi and feet long, the mid- 

 toe when extended reaching beyond the ends of the longest under tail-coverts. In Eremiornis 

 the bill is straighter, the rictal bristles feeble and hardly visible, the wing more rounded and 

 distinctly shorter than the tail, the tarsi short and feet small, the mid-toe reaching when 

 extended about half-way down the longest under tail-coverts. What I regard as constituting 

 the chief point of distinction between the two genera is, that in Schwnicola the tarsi and feet are 

 long and strong as in Acroccpkalus and other Reed-Warblers, while Eremiornis has the tarsi 

 short and the feet comparatively small, the tarsus only equalling in length that of Smicrornis 

 fiavesccns, the smallest species of Australian birds. For the purpose of comparison the measure- 

 ments of adult specimens of Schceuicola platyura and Eremiornis cartcri are here given. An adult 

 male of Schcenicola platyura measures: — Total length 6-i inches, wing 2-6, tail 2-8, bill o'46, 

 tarsus O'B. An adult male oi Eremiornis cartcri measures: — Total length 5-7 inches, wing 2-05, 

 tail 2-7, bill o'46, tarsus o'55. The principal distinctions pointed out between Schcenicola and 

 Eremiornis will be seen in the Plate, reproduced from a photograph, which accompanies the 

 above remarks, § where skins of the two birds are laid side by side and figured of the natural size. 



• Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, xii., p. 51 (1902). 



t Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus , Vol. vii., p. no (18S3). 



J Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. vii., p. no (18S3). 



§ Vict. Nat., Vol. .\i.x , p 72, and pi. opp. p. 72 (1902). 



