Vol. XVII 1.1 Q^j^pg^LL, Birds from Gouldian-Gilbert Type-locality. 173 



Land. After touching at the Goyder, Glyde, and Liverpool 

 Rivers, M'Lennan remained for a while and camped inland on 

 the King River (see map facing p. 118, Emu, vol. Xvi.), which 

 locality is, as the Crow flies, about 80 miles from Port Essing- 

 ton, where Gilbert procured Gould's northern types. The King 

 River is, therefore, practically the Gilbertian type-locality. 

 Judging by the reports of explorers and others, the same 

 class of country is common to Arnhem Land, Kimberley on 

 the west, and Carpentaria on the east. Our exploring member, 

 Mr. Gerald F. Hill, who, besides being a good field ornithologist, has 

 made a study of botany, and understands the flora and physical 

 features of a country, has informed me that he can find little or 

 no difference in the character of country, say, around Napier 

 Broome Bay (North-West Australia) and that of Port Darwin 

 district and the Macarthur River (Northern Territory). In fact, 

 Mr. Hill says the embouchures of the PTtzroy River, in the North- 

 West, and the Macarthur River, in the Gulf country, bear a striking 

 resemblance to each other. The country generally on the coast 

 has its interminable mazes of mangroves, succeeded in turn by 

 "paper-bark" {Melaleuca) swamps, forest flats — eucalypts, 

 Eugenia, Pandanus, &c. — then gullies running up into rough and 

 broken sandstone plateaus. When Mr. Hill read Mr. M'Lennan's 

 account of the King River country, he could have believed 

 Mr. M'Lennan was describing parts of Kimberley district ; there- 

 fore, if the environment of the avifauna of the whole country, 

 though extensive, be similar, we should be careful how we sub- 

 divide species which, in point of fact, may be identical. 



However, for some reason or other which is not apparent, there 

 are slight differences in a few kinds. For instance, some species 

 of birds from Napier Broome Bay (North-West) and the Macarthur 

 River, or Gulf country, are identical, while the same species on 

 the intermediate northern part of Arnhem Land, only three or 

 four degrees (about the width of the little State of Victoria in its 

 broadest part) further north, are a slight shade darker, notably 

 the White-tailed Robin {Paxilodryas pulverulenlus), Brown Shrike- 

 Thrush {CoUuricincla brunnea). Chestnut-breasted Finch {Munia 

 castaneothorax), Masked Grass-Finch {Poephila personata), &c. 

 " One Swallow does not make a summer." These few exceptions 

 do not constitute a separate avifaunal sub-locality, with sub- 

 specific differences in species, but can be simply mentioned, if 

 necessary, as " observations." No scientific ends are gained by 

 applying to these trifling, perhaps variable, differences useless 

 classical triple names. 



Although a bad season, and enduring many hardships, M'Lennan 

 succeeded in collecting between 50 and 60 Gouldian-Gilbert 

 species, practically all the Port Essington ones save, perhaps, 

 the Little Kinglislier {Alcyone pusilla), the Great-billed Heron 

 {Ardea sumalrana), tlie Rose-crowned Fruit-Pigeon {Ptilonopus 

 ewingi) — both the latter seen but not collected — and a few of the 

 Limicoline birds. The Rose-crowned Fruit-Pigeon is also found in 

 North-West Australia (see Hill, Emu, x., p. 263). 



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