120 Ross, Notes on the Rufous Bristle-Bird. [2nd"oct. 



rare bird, and the fact that Dr. Sharpe, when, some 25 years ago, 

 he compiled the " Catalogue of Birds " for the British Museum, 

 copied the description which had appeared in 1867, suggests that 

 he had no skins in the museum to work upon. My own opinion 

 is that S. broadhcnti is by no means a rare bird, but the nature 

 of the country it frequents would make the task of procuring 

 skins rather a difficult one. The trouble, for shooting purposes, 

 would be, not to get close enough to the birds, but to be far enough 

 away when they were visible. As far as I know, the south-western 

 part of Victoria, where the country is heavily timbered and covered 

 with a dense undergrowth of scrub, is the only locality where 

 5. broadbenii is found.* The fourth species, 5. littoralis, was 

 somewhat recently discovered, named, and described by a member 

 of the Bird Observers' Club, Mr. A. W. Milligan. 



My first acquaintance with Sphenura hroadbenti was on 21st 

 November, 1906. I had gone to Lome (Vic.) two days earlier 

 with a letter which my friend Mr. F. E. Howe had secured for me 

 from Mr. C. F. Belcher; and although Mr. Belcher had frequently 

 had the birds under his observation, and ungrudgingly gave me 

 much useful information, I was not able immediately to establish 

 contact with them. After that trip I wrote a short paper while 

 my experiences were fresh in my mind, and I will now draw liberally 

 from those notes and add to them from my subsequent associa- 

 tions. As those who have visited Lome know, the coach arrives 

 at the township about 2.30 p.m., and I at once made inquiries, 

 but could get no information as to the object of my visit ; so I 

 set out for the deep gully traversed by Stony Creek, and spent 

 the remainder of the afternoon listening for notes that sounded 

 like the squeaking of an ungreased cart-wheel. Curiously enough, 

 the first unfamiliar sound which took me off the track was made 

 by a Bristle-Bird, but I did not know that until two days later. 

 Several times I heard notes which were new to me. but. as I 

 could not get a glimpse of the songsters. I had to return to the 

 township without having made much progress. During the 

 evening I made further inquiries, but could find nobody who 

 knew that there was such a bird as the one I was seeking. How- 

 ever, I had a conversation with a lady who had accompanied her 

 son on several excursions undertaken for the purpose of studying 

 birds, and she had been observant enough to notice the ungreased 

 cart-wheel notes, and told me that the only place where they were 

 to be heard was in the gully drained by the Little Erskine River. 

 Consequently, I spent the whole of the next day in that gully, 

 but I had to return to the township in the evening without having 

 caught a glimpse of a Bristle-Bird, although, as I afterwards knew, 

 I heard the birds and followed the calls through the scrubs several 

 times. 



The following day I resolved to try in the direction of Stony 

 Creek again, and I was soon invited into the scrub at the identical 



* Mr. A. J. Campbell records the Rufous Bristle-Bird as fairly numerous in 

 the coastal scrubs of Guichen Bay, South Australia, where he procured a male 

 and presented it to the Adelaide Museum— £»»!(, vol. vi., p. T37 (1907).— Eds. 



