350 TIMELIID.E. 



Adult female — Differs from the male in being brown above, the head icith a slight ochreous 

 shade; lower rump and upper tail-coverts yellow; upper iving-coverts and quills brown, liaviiig 

 smaller and less distinct pale margins; all the under surface dull ivhite zvashed with yelloiv, less 

 distinctly on the throat and deeper in tint on the centre of the abdomen; the fore-neck shaded ivith 

 ashy-brown ; under tail-coverts yellow. 



Distribution.— Q\ieens\st.nd, New South Wales, \'ictoria, South AustraUa, Central Australia, 

 Western Australia, and North-western Australia. 



®\LTHOUGH by no means the most common species, Ephthianura aurifrons is the most 

 JrjL. widely distributed member of the genus. Probably, like E. tricolor, it is in a measure 

 nomadic in habits, and may occur one season in a district where it has not been observed 

 before, and then be absent again for many years. In the Eastern Australian States it is strictly 

 an inhabitant of the inland plains, and is never found near the coast. In South Australia it is 

 not uncommon in the neighbourhood of Port Augusta; and in North-western Australia Mr. 

 Tom Carter has noted it at Point Cloates, and Mr. G. A. Keartland at the junction of the 

 Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers, some distance inland from Derby. I could find no record of its 

 having been obtained in Northern Queensland until I received a skin for examination from 

 Dr. W. Macgillivray," who informed me that it was common in the Cloncurry District, about 

 two hundred miles south from Normanton, near the shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is 

 tolerably common in western New South Wales and the adjoining portion of South Australia, 

 also in the central portions of the latter State, and I have seen specimens that were collected 

 near the Murray River in northern N'ictoria. 



There are numerous specimens in the Australian Museum Collection, obtained in the 

 vicinity of Port Augusta, in South Australia, by Mr. K. Broadbent. Dr. A. M. Morgan 

 informs me that to the north-west of this district, in July and August, 1900, he found small 

 flocks frequenting salt-bush and samphire table-lands, but very wary and apparently not 

 breeding, as none but old nests were found. Dr. Morgan has also observed it in the vicinity 

 of Laura, about one hundred and forty miles north of Adelaide. 



Like the adult males oi Ephthianura tricolor, some specimens are much deeper in colour 

 than others; the black feathers, too, in some examples extend from the throat well down on 

 to the fore-neck. The richest coloured male in the Australian Museum Collection, probably a 

 very old one, was procured by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett, who sent me the following notes: — 

 "Ephthianura aurifrons is a constant resident in the Mossgiel District, New South Wales, and 

 may be seen at all seasons, though it is much more numerous some years than others. It 

 frequents the open plains, and may often be noticed perched on the top of a cotton or salt-bush, 

 from which it flits off when disturbed by too near an approach, and alights on some other 

 bush, or on the ground over which it trips with astonishing activity. It breeds in September 

 and October as a rule, but I have found its nest containing eggs, as late as February." 



From south-western New South Wales, Dr. W. Macgillivray writes me: — ''Ephthianura 

 aurifrons was observed in this part of the State in 1901, a week before the arrival of £. tricolor, 

 and I saw young birds flying on the 3rd November. F.oth species were noted during the hot 

 dry summer months in private gardens in Broken Hill, and also more numerous in the Central 

 Reserve, where a lot of manure provided an abundant feast of insects, etc., and which was 

 resorted to, among other birds, by the three species of Ephthianura found in the district. 

 E. aurifrons may often be noticed feeding on insects which congregate on flowering shrubs 

 scattered over salt-bush flats. The stomachs of those shot during the spring contained mostly 

 young grasshoppers. In 1903 they were seen on the 15th September, about a fortnight after 



• Vict. Nat., Vol. xvii., p. 188 (1901). 



