^°\i^^] CARTER, Xotcs on Some .lusfrallan /''mis. 57 



have never seen the latter bird away from the swamps of the 

 South-West, but Circus assimilis is a common bird in the Gas- 

 coyne and more northern areas, and I certainly saw it on Dirk 

 Hartog Island. 



Field-Wrens (Calanianthus liartogi and C. peroni). In re- 

 spect to these sub-species, Mr. Whitlock says: "It requires a fine 

 discrimination to detect differences in plumage in local clans of 

 a species separated from one another by a strait only about 

 twenty miles wide." I shall deal with this point later on in this 

 paper, but may say that when one lays out any series of skins 

 like those of Calamanthi collected between the N.W. Cape and 

 Lake Austin (Day Dawn), as I did at the Perth (Western Aus- 

 tralian) Museum, with the kind assistance of Messrs. Alexander 

 and Glauert, it is best to ignore the localities at first, and class 

 the birds according to their respective resemblances or differ- 

 ences (as we did) in order to avoid any prejudice, and then. 

 compare the labels. C. hartogi very much resembled the birds 

 from Dorre Island, but the Peron specimens were quite distinct 

 from the Dirk Hartog birds. As stated by nie in the Ihis, 1917, 

 p. 587, the Peron birds came nearest to C. ruhiginosus and C. 

 u'oyerisis, but have differences, which I gave in my paper. On 

 my return to England, a comparison between my specimens of 

 skins from the North West Cape regions and the Peron con- 

 firmed these differences. However, we shall probably soon have 

 Mr. A. J. Campbell's opinion about them. As I was not on Dirk 

 Hartog during the breeding season, as Mr. Whitlock was, I did 

 not see the C. hartogi in full breeding plumage, which may be 

 a point in his favor. 



Mr. Whitlock states that "no Acanthiza (Tit- Warbler) ap- 

 pears to inhabit Dirk Hartog," w^hich coincides with my own 

 experience. In the Ihis, October, 1917, p. 588, I stated that no 

 Acanthiaa w^as observed by me on the island, but in my diary 

 I have an entry made by me on May 1, 1916, when at Cape 

 Inscription Lighthouse, that I there saw a few birds that looked 

 like the Yellow-tailed Tit- Warbler {Acanthiza chrysorrhoa), 

 but no specimens were obtained (I think I had not my gun with 

 me at the time) ; so being doubtful of their identity thev were 

 not recorded. It was the same date and place as the Tricoloured 

 Bush-Chat ( Bphthianura tricolor) were seen. A heavy N.E. 

 gale was blow'ing at the time, which might account for stragglers 

 of both the above species occurring temporarily on the island. 



White-winged Wren- Warbler (Malurus leuconotus). Refer- 

 ring to Mr. Whitlock's criticism of the coloured plate of this 

 bird that appeared in The Ibis, October, 1917, it was certainly 

 drawn and coloured by the artist from a skin, and not from a 

 specimen in the flesh. The skin was selected by myself from a 

 series then in mv collection (mostlv collected from the C,a-- 



