Vol. III. 



1904 



Mii.lican, Notes on a Trip to the Wongan Hills, W.A. 2 2 I 



late for their nests and eggs, as all their broods were out. I 

 caught several young birds at different times, but after examining 

 them returned them to their parents' care. I have now found 

 and have recorded this species at two different places in Western 

 Australia — the first at the Stirling Ranges, in the south (see 

 Emu, vol. iii., page 14), the second at the Wongan Hills. These 

 I take to be the most southern and northern limits respectively 

 of the species, but I shall be surprised, indeed, if the species is 

 not afterwards found at elevated rocky places between the above 

 limits. They undoubtedly are not only lovers of stony and 

 rocky places, but also of mountainous ones. 



Our first clay's outing in the Hills was also productive of 

 another rare form in Drymacedus pallidus (?). When emerging 

 from one of the dense scrubs into more open country I heard 

 a series of clear, thrush-like notes just ahead of me. The author 

 of them I found sitting on a dead branch of a fallen shrub. Quite 

 unconscious of my presence, he continued his song. It was, I 

 confess, with some qualms of conscience that I shot the bird, 

 but the exigencies of science had to be satisfied. On picking 

 him up, his mate came running up quite close to me and for 

 some time fed about unconcernedly within a few feet. I need 

 scarcely say that I did not molest her. Other specimens were 

 obtained subsequently, included in the number being an 

 advanced fledgling. On comparing the skins obtained with the 

 Eastern form (D. brunneopygius) I cannot detect any differences 

 between the Eastern and Western forms. Certainly, in one or 

 two skins of the latter the under parts are a little lighter in colour 

 than in the former, but on the other hand one of the adults we 

 secured was very much darker on those parts than the Eastern 

 bird. 



On the same day's outing we met with a family of the Rufous- 

 rumped Ground-Wrens (Hylacola canto), one of which Mr. 

 Conigrave was fortunate in getting. The locality in which 

 they were found was a flat-bottomed gully of rich red soil with 

 dwarf scrub growing upon it. We found the members of the 

 family most fearless and familiar. On my imitating the cry 

 of a young bird, these bright, coquettish little fellows, with tails 

 elevated, would approach me by short, rapid runs, scrutinizing 

 critically at each brief stoppage, and then fearlessly run over my 

 feet as I stood. Running off again in the scrub, I would bring 

 them back again and again with the same device. The birds 

 do not resort to flight, but run along the ground like mice, and 

 thread their way through the undergrowth, the tails always 

 being carried vertically. When first disturbed, the adult bird 

 utters a single scolding note, and repeats the same at intervals 

 while the intruder remains. They possess, however, a spirited, 

 clear song, which is uttered when perched on a bare limb in a 

 low bush. They appear to be very local in habit, for the only 

 place except one we found them in the Hills was in the gully 

 mentioned, which we named after the genus. The broods 



