Nasrs AND Ecas of Australian birds. 245 



197. — Sericoknis fkontalis, Vigors and llorsikld. — (216) 

 6'. minim 111 J Gould. 



WHITE-BROWED SCRUB WREN. 



Figure. — Gould: Birds of Austr.ilia, iol., vol iii., pi. 49; Goukl : 



Birds of New Guinea, vol. iii., pi. 7. 

 liejerence. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. vii., p. 304. 



Previous Descriptions of £^4's.— Gould : Birds of Australia (iX^tl), also 

 Handbook, vol. i., p. 359 (1S65J ; North: Austn. Mus. Cat., 

 p. 132, pi. 9, fig. 16 11889). 



Geuyraphical DUtrilnition. — Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, 

 South AustraUa, and Kent Group (Bass Strait). 



Nest. — Bulky, roundish in shape, with side entrance ; somewhat 

 loosely consti-ucted of grass, moss, bark, and dead leaves and fronds; 

 lined in.side \vitli line grass and feathers. Usually placed near the 

 ground in thick scrub or iu c/thris. Dimensions, outward diameter, 

 5 or (3 inches ; entrance, about 1 inch across. 



Et/tja. — Clutch, three ; swollen oval in shape ; texluic of shell fine ; 

 surface glossy ; colour varies from warmish or buffy-white to light 

 pm'plish-buiY, splashed and streaked with short marks of purplish-brown, 

 sometimes chestnut, thickest on the apex, where they coalesce in the 

 form of a zoue. Dimcn.sions in inches of a proper clutch ; (1) -85 x 62, 

 (2) -84 X '64, (3) -84 x -63. 



Observatiuns. — The White-fronted, or more descriptive still, the 

 White-browed, Scrub Wren, is a common species, enjoying a habitat 

 throughout the whole length of Eastern Australia. 



According to the " British Museum Catalogue," Goidd's smaller 

 bird, S. iniiiimus^ is merely a northern variety of iS'. frontalitt, and 

 shows very distinctly the white eye-stripes. The qviestion of variation 

 of sub-specific differences in birds is very perplexing to ornithological 

 students. There is another and insular variety of tiie While-browed 

 Scrub Wren, wliich was first found diuing the expedition of the Field 

 Naturalists' Club of Victoria to Kent Group, in 1890, for which Colonel 

 Leggc has proposed the sub-specific name i/ulurin* on account of its 

 marked difference (darker) on the tlu-oat. It has also a con.spicuously 

 larger bill, and there are other minor points which serve to distinguish 

 it from the mainland variety. 



Tlie White-browed Scnib Wren and the Wiiitc-naped Honeyeater 

 f Melitliripfiix luinildtu!^) were two mainland species of birds, which 

 we fotmd on Kent Group, that are not found in Ta,smania. 



There are various conjectui'es as to how the birds first came there. 

 Their progenitors may have been canicd to their insular quarters 

 (about forty-five miles from the mainland) by the north-west gales that 



• " Victorian Naturalist," vol. xiii . p 84 (1896). 



