The Emu 



Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union 



The Pallid Pardalote (Pardalotus pallidus) 



By A. J. CAMPBELL, C.M.B.O.U., "Bulgaroo," Box Hill, \'ic. 



In deference to the special desire of the Editor, Dr. Leach, 

 I write this note on the accompanying coloured plate. 



It is difficult in our present state of knowledge to say which 

 are species and which are sub-species. If F. pallidus be not a 

 species, it at least appears to be a distinct variety or sub-species 

 of P. rubricatiis of Eastern Australia, the two forms being sepa- 

 rated by a great space of arid interior and the "natural fence" 

 of the conjoined Great Sandy, Gibson's and Victoria Deserts. 

 The habitat of the Pallid Pardalote or Pallid Diamond-Bird 

 appears to be North- West Australia proper, from the region of 

 the De Grey River in the north, to the Gascoyne River in the 

 south. 



In addition to my description of, and remarks on, the Pallid 

 Pardalote in The Emu, vol. viii., p. 142, Mr. Tom Carter, 

 M.B.O.U., gives the following more recent note in The Ibis, 1921, 

 p. 70: — "Pale Red-browed Pardalotes were, as usual, fairly plen- 

 tiful about the beds of the Gascoyne and Minilya rivers, and 

 occasionally seen far from water-courses. On lOth September, 

 1916, I shot a female on the latter river. On 18th September 

 I noted a pair of these birds feeding young, w^hich were being 

 reared inside a perpendicular iron pipe about two inches in 

 diameter and seven feet in height. This was set upright in the 

 ground just outside a large shearing shed, where shearing was 

 in full progress. The nest was apparently some distance down 

 the pipe." 



The specimens herewith figured are from a series of five in 

 the "H. L. White Collection," National Museum, Melbourne 

 (through the courtesy of the Curator, Mr. J. A. Kershaw. 

 F.E.S.), all of which consistently differ from typical P. rubri- 

 catus, and from Gould's figure of same in Birds of Australia, vol. 

 ii., pi. 36. 



