Vol. III. 

 1904 



MlLLlGAN, Observations on the Western Gymnorhince. I 7Q 



seeking the warmer and more congenial shores of Australia ; 

 and it is singular, indeed, that not one of these birds possesses 

 any claim to song. In Western Australia there is not, strictly 

 speaking, any winter season. Snow, even in the highest mountain 

 peaks of the extreme south, is a rarity. The seasons are only two 

 — the hot and the rainy. The latter is never what might be called 

 really cold, except, perhaps, on the occurrence of an occasional 

 blow from the Antarctic. Immediately after the first rains at 

 the back end of the hot season numerous flowers and shrubs at 

 once come into bloom, and they are followed by a succession of 

 others during the rainy season. There is not, in fact, any stagna- 

 tion of vegetable growth in any month of the year. Even many 

 of the birds nest and bring up their young in the early part of 

 the rainy season. With climatic conditions such as these, what 

 is there to prompt spontaneity of song to any degree. Certainly 

 bird-song is heard in greater volume in the months corresponding 

 to the springtime of South-Eastern Australia, but that fact is 

 principally due to migrants who have arrived from the northern 

 parts of the State to breed, and who aid to swell materially the 

 volume by their love-song. 



A parallel is afforded in the vegetable life of the State. Our 

 indigenous trees are not deciduous, and even deciduous trees 

 introduced from colder climates evince a disposition to maintain 

 the old leaves until the reappearance of the new. The budding 

 into leaf and the blossoming of trees and the outburst of the song 

 of birds are simultaneous in cold climates. 



The foregoing remarks are not intended to imply that the 

 Western Australian birds are songless. On the contrary, they 

 do possess song in a marked degree, but that is not conspicuous 

 at one particular time more than another, for the reasons stated. 

 For instance, the species under notice carols in the same manner 

 as the Eastern birds, but not so markedly or spontaneously at 

 certain periods. This partially suppressed characteristic is not 

 alone peculiar to the species mentioned, but it is observable in 

 many others, notably the Magpie-Lark (Grallina picatd) and the 

 Dusky Miner (Manorkina obscura). 



[The plate (No. X.) of Gymnorhina dor satis, male, female, and 

 immature female, should have appeared in connection with Mr. 

 Milligan's paper in the previous part, page 99, but was unavoid- 

 ably held over. — Eds.] 



Some Rectifications in Tasmanian Ornis. 



By (Colonel) W. V. Legge, F.Z.S., &c. 



ACANTHIZA EWINGI (Gould). 



In my address at the annual Congress I recently had occasion 

 to allude to the fact that Ewing's Tree-Tit still stood as a valid 

 Tasmanian species, although it had been omitted from the list 

 of the genus in the B.M. Catalogue. It was pointed out that 



