v«>-^xi.] ASH BY, The Dusky Miner. 255 



the auricular region is continued right over the eye to the lores. 

 It differs from clelandi and ortoni, in having dark grey cheeks, 

 almost as dark as the dominant form, but it corresponds with 

 ortoni in the almost silvery-grey of the chin and throat, but in 

 the eastern form there is some evidence of streaking on the chin 

 and throat. The whole of the under side corresponds with 

 ortoni, but the upper side is almost as dark as M. obscura, but 

 it differs from all the western forms in showing no paling of the 

 upper tail coverts, they being practically the same shade of 

 brownish-grey as the back. The yellow gular mark is most de- 

 veloped in ortoni and least developed in niclanotis; in fact in this • 

 latter form it is sub-obsolete. 



This very distinct form has up to the present only been re- 

 corded in South Australia from that belt of mallee lying, roughly, 

 between a point 20 miles south of Loxton to the Pinaroo rail- 

 way line, and commencing within a few miles of the River Mur- 

 ray and extending eastward to the Victorian border. This bird 

 inhabits an eastern extension of this belt as far as the Kow 

 Plains in Victoria. 



I have taken a nice series at Karoonda, and also within five 

 miles of the River Murray, 10 miles north of Mannum. Aly- 

 santha c/arrula, Latham, is common in the large red gums along 

 the banks of the Murray, but five miles back in the mallee the 

 bird under discussion is the only species of Myzantha seen. 



In the "H. L. White Collection" are two skins — a male and 

 female — from Kow Plains in Victoria, which are identical with 

 the Karoonda specimens. 



Myzantha fla-vigula, Gould. Yellow-throated Miner. 



Differs from Myzantha obscura and its three sub-species dealt 

 with in this paper, in having white cheeks, almost white chin, 

 strongly developed yellow gular marks and extremely light, al- 

 most w^hite, upper tail coverts. 



These features are consistent in all the forms, and w'hde there 

 is some range of divergence in specimens from widely separated 

 localities, their general tone is characteristically lighter than any 

 of the forms of M. obscura. I have in my own collection speci- 

 mens mostly collected by myself, from Pungonda, 20 miles south 

 of Renmark, near Broken Hill, Mt. Gambler, Port Germain and 

 Leigh's Creek, all, with the exception of Broken Hill, in South 

 Australia. I also collected this bird in August, 1901, on the gold- 

 fields in W.A. at a point about 300 miles due east of Moora. 



In the "H. L. White Collection" I saw a very fine series com- 

 mencing at the Murchison and extending round the north-west 

 of the same State through the Northern Territory, through the 

 Gulf country into Queensland, in addition to .skins from New 

 South Whales and Victoria. The whole of the series are consist- 

 ent in their general characters and easily separated from any of 

 the forms of obscura. 



Conclusion.— The claim that M. obscura, with its variants, is 

 <a geographical race of M. flavigula is, I contend, without sub- 



