AMYTIS. 425 



Amytis macrurus. 



LAliiiK-TAILKl* (JKAS.S^WKKX. 



Aii,,/fi.s i,i„r,;ninis, Goukl, Pine. Zool Soc. (1847), p. 2 ; i,/., Brls Austr., fol. Vol. 111., pi. ISO (1S48); 

 ii/., Iliuid-bk. Bds. Austr,, Vol. I , p. ;i3S (1,SG,5). 



Aiiii//is iiKK-inra, Sharpe, (*.it. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. VII., p. IQS (1SS;5). 



Aiiu/fis inarriirns, North, \'ict. Nat., Vol. XXVI., p. 15S (rjlQ). 



Adul'I' mm,k. — Gi'iieriil cnloi/.y a/iDrf. hrmrn, cacli ffiitlier tnilli a i^fi-fnk of ivlii/i: ,/u/vii /hf. centre 

 the fea/lirrs (III llie sides vf tlie liead, fureliead, cro/vu of /he head and hiud-neck iinlh a daskij wash, 

 V'hich is more pronunncedun the forehead, remleriny the while, central streaks tliere more cuns/iicaous : 

 tiiirer hark, riiiii/i mid ii/>/" r lail-corerls hroiru, irith uiirroir irhitish slmft lines ; ii/i/ier iving-eoverts 

 like the back ; qnills dark broirn, laari/ined on both mebs and arnnnd tJif tips ivith fuh-onsliroirn, 

 and hacing faint reddishirhite shafts : tail-feathers dnsky-brovn, mi/h pider brown margins and 

 shafts: all the under surface isabelline, the feathers of the chin, throat and fore neck iitdistinctli/ 

 streaked inlh n-lnte dmrn tin' centre : thighs isabelline broirn : n/nder iriiiy-corerts and inner margin 

 of the qnills ricli. fuvn culonr: ''bill black : feet black; iris broirn'' (Gibson). '/'n/al leii,//h 7:1 

 inches, wing ;2''>5, tail -l-f, bill II- 'f.', tarsus 11-95. 



Al)lU/r KICMALK. — Similar in phunage to tin- male. 



Dislnbidioii. — Western .Australia. 



/'(FV OULD orifj;ii]ally described this species in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society 

 V — A of London " in 1847, from two e.samples obtained by Gilbert in Western AustraHa, 

 and of which the latter records :■ — " It inhabits tiie tliiclcets, and is almost always on the ground 

 in families of from tour to se\en in number; it carries its tail more erect than any other bird I 

 have seen, and certainly no bird runs, or rather hops, over the surface of the ground with 

 greater rapidity." 



The late Mr. George Masters, Curator of the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney, 

 informed me on one occasion, in 186S, while collecting in South-western Australia on behalf of 

 the Trustees, he met with a small flock of Amytis luarninis in the scrub, bobbing up and down 

 like tennis balls, as they hopped over the ground only a few yards away from him. Until 1909 

 this was the only instance I Icnew of anyone meeting with the bird smce Gould described it. 



Of comparatively recent years, however, this species has been obtained, if Amytis gii^tuttiira, 

 Milligan, the Amytoruis inr^aliirus of Sharpe, be identical with it (I have pointed out elsewhere f 

 the discrepancy in Gould's dimensions of Amytis maivnriis in his original description in the 

 "Proceedings of the Zoological Society" and his "Handbook to the Birds of Australia,") 

 while Mr. Tom Carter described it later under the name of Aiiiytornis varia. 



During 1909 Mr. Ciias. G. Gibson sent me skins oi Amytis macntrus, collected near Kalgoorlie, 

 Western Australia, and at various times since the 29th August, 1909, information relative to 

 finding their nest and eggs. Three sets of their eggs were received for description, accom- 

 panied by a photograph taken by Mr. Gibson of the nest and eggs in silii, from which the 

 following ligure is reproduced, and also the following field notes. In addition Mr. Gibson 

 forwarded me a skin of an adult male he procured at Cardinia, seventy miles east of 

 Kalgoorlie : — " With regard to the finding of the nests of the Large-tailed Grass- Wren (Amytis 

 macrurus), the first was made on the 29th August, 1909, as I was working through a clump of 

 thick bush, when one of the birds suddenly flew out of a thick prickly bush just in front of me 

 investigation resulted, much to my delight, in finding a nest right in the centre of the bush, 



* Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. III., pi. 30 (1M4S). t Horn Sci. E.sped. Centr. Austr., Zool., p. 81 (1896). 

 1C7 



