'^,yQ5 J Probable New Bird for Australia. 203 



Probable New Bird for Australia. 



Through the courtesy of Mr. H. G. Barnard, the editors of The 

 Emu have received loose leaflets, presumably from The 

 Proceedings of the Linnean Society of N.S.W. (there being no 

 head-lines), giving a description of a probable new and interest- 

 ing bird for Australia. Mr. Barnard shot the bird at Bimbi, 

 Dawson River district, Queensland, on the loth June last year. 

 When he first noticed the stranger it was running on the ground 

 like the Pipit {Aiithiis australis). It was the only one he had 

 ever seen, and his attention was attracted to it by its sharp 

 whistling note. 



Mn Barnard, having occasion to forward a parcel of bird-skins 

 to the Australian Museum, Sydney, enclosed the new bird for 

 identification, with the result that Mr. A. J. North, ornithologist 

 of that institution, pronounced it to be a Motacilla or Wagtail, 

 an entirely new genus for Australia. The bird appears to be 

 closely allied to European forms (Af. borealis and M. 

 cinereicapilla). The Australian bird, according to Mr. North, is 

 an adult male, in perfect plumage ; it has a well-pronounced 

 white superciliary stripe, as is shown in Dr. Bowdler Sharpe's 

 fig. 6 of the head of M. cinereicapilla (Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., vol. 

 X., pi. vii.), but the throat is yellow, not white ; the lores and 

 feathers below the eye are black, and a blackish wash extends 

 over the anterior portion of the car coverts, and the chin is 

 white. On the under parts it resembles fig. i on the same plate, 

 M. borealis, in having the throat yellow and a blackish narrow 

 band across the fore-neck. Total length, 6.15 inches; wing, 

 3.08 ; tail, 2.9 ; bill, .5 ; tarsus, .9. Owing to seasonal 

 changes and varying phases of plumage, considerable difference 

 of opinion exists among ornithologists who have made a life- 

 long study of the genus Motacilla, as to the validity of certain 

 of its species or sub-species. Should the specimen obtained by 

 Mr. Barnard not be an unusually plumaged visitor or straggler 

 from another clime, and the characters pointed out above, in 

 which it differs from M. cinereicapilla, prove constant, Mr. 

 North proposes to designate the new bird under the name of 

 Motacilla barnardi, a well-deserved honour for its enthusiastic 

 discoverer. 



Stray Feathers. 



Gulls Nesting InlAiND. — Silver Gulls have been nesting 

 this season at Ennendale, in the Western District, Victoria, and 

 many miles from the sea coast. The swamp is about half a 

 mile long by a quarter broad. The nests arc made on the 

 tussocks, which are rather sparsely spread over nearly the whole 

 of the swamp. — H. OuiNEV. Mortlake, Victoria. 



