^**'i9i^-l ASHBY, The Dusky Miner. 253 



It was easy to recognise two Western Australian forms and 

 one eastern form. ( 1 ) M. obsciira, Old. sensu stricto, inhabiting 

 the wet forest country from Perth southwards, a dark, large- 

 billed bird. (2) The bird from Moora, a small-billed, lighter 

 and generally smaller bird. (3) The far eastern bird described 

 by Mr. F. E. Wilson as M. melanotis, and inhabiting die belt 

 of Mallee from the River Murray eastward across the Victorian 

 border to the Kow Plains. This is also a small-billed form, and 

 in general size and build, very similar to the Moora bird, but 

 easily distinguished by the black of the lores being carried right 

 over the eye and joining the black auricular region. The upper 

 tail coverts are in this species the same dark brownish-grey as 

 the back, whereas in all the Western Australian forms the tail 

 coverts are lighter than the back ; this I recognised as sub- 

 species No. 2 of M. obsciira. 



For the past year I have been endeavouring to obtain a sight 

 of Mathews' M. flavigula clelandi, from Broome Hill, W.A. 

 While satisfied with the correctness of the conclusions stated 

 above, one could not help feeling that any paper published with- 

 out reference to Mr. Mathews' clelandi would be inconclusive. 

 Was J\lalhews' clelandi identical with or closely allied to the 

 Moora bird or was it really a sub-species of M. flavic/ula'f 



On the occasion of a hurried visit to Melbourne on the 8th 

 and 9th of November, the writer has in company with Mr. A. J. 

 Campbell been privileged to examine, through the courtesy of 

 the Curator, Mr. J. A. Ker.shaw, the very fine series of the genus 

 Myzantha in the "H. L. White Collection" in the National 

 Museum, Melbourne. 



As I suspected, the race from Broome Hill is certainly refer- 

 able to M. obsciira and not to AI. flavigula, and is intermediate 

 between the dominant form and the Moora bird. I do not think 

 we are justified in recognising more than one sub-species of 

 obsciira in Western Australia, and as Mr. Mathews has desig- 

 nated the Broome Hill bird under the name clelandi, we shall 

 probably have to refer all variants in W.A. to that sub-species 

 or the dominant species, but for the purposes of this ])aper I 

 will designate the Moora bird as AT. obsciira ortoni after the 

 gentleman who has assisted me with specimens, and has done 

 so much work amongst the birds of Western Australia. This 

 race seems to be the extreme variant of obsciira in Western 

 Australia, and it is possible that it occurs in the belt of coastal 

 mallee and timber as far east as the Nullarbor Plains, and it is 

 not unlikely that there may be a link between ortoni and melan- 

 otis still to be found between Eyre's Peninsula and the Nullarbor 

 Plains. I should like to have taken measurements of the very 

 fine series in the "H. L. White Collection," but time did not 

 I^ermit. 



Myzantha obscura, Gould. Dusky Miner. 



Parge bill, culmen 27 mm. Upper side, except tail coverts, 

 dark brownish-grey, under side about the same tone without the 



