4 MiLLIGAN, Notes on a Trip to the IVongan Hills, W.A. [,,p'|'", . 



building their nests under one roof, so to speak. It is said in 

 respect of this latter family that the greater number of their 

 settlements is formed of nests containing merely the chamber 

 for the young and the apartment arranged by the male for his 

 own occupation, and that some males build separate nests for 

 themselves. It is perhaps more than a coincidence that the 

 male ot the species under notice (as also its ally, Acanthiza 

 chrysorrhoa) builds a so-called " cock's nest," and which is generally 

 thought to be for his own occupation. I recorded an instance 

 (see "Notes on a Trip to the Stirling Range," Emu, vol. iii., 

 page 17) where I found the "cock's nest" an independent 

 structure, but in the same bush. The " conglomerate " nest of 

 the local species was not only long, but bulky. The unusual 

 size was dvie to the great amount of raw wool which had been 

 filched from the sheep enclosure in the vicinity and which had 

 liberally, if not extravagantly, been interwoven into the 

 structure. 



Distribution of Species. — The trip atiorded the best of 

 opportunities for making observations on that interesting phase 

 of ornithology — namely, the distribution of species. From the 

 results, I have been enabled to fix the northern or southern limits 

 of many Western Australian species, and also the eastern or 

 western limits of many others. Further exploration will doubt- 

 less cause alteration in the limits fixed, but I think not very 

 materially, as I have had the advantage of examining as well 

 a collection of bird-skins obtained by one of the Museum collectors 

 at Wurarga and Day Dawn, some 200 miles north of the VVongan 

 Hills, as also another made by Mr. Bruce Leake, of Kellerberrin, 

 in his district (distant some 160 miles south-easterly from the 

 Hills), and donated by him to the Museum. I have also had 

 to aid me our collection from the Stirling Range, distant some 

 350 miles in a southerly direction from the Hills, and my own 

 personal knowledge of coastal distribution from Lake Yanchep 

 in the north to Cape Leeuwin in the south. 



As our starting point was near the northern end of the great 

 coastal mountain chain of Western Australia, the Darling 

 Ranges, I was further enabled to obtain sufficient data upon 

 which to base, or perhaps confirm, the positive existence of, 

 purely coastal forms as contradistinguished from purely inland 

 ones, or, as I prefer to term them, "ultramontane" forms. 

 Doubtless farther north, where the intiuence of the natural 

 barrier of the coastal range is not felt, and where species are 

 tree to come and go without interruption, the fixed limits for 

 eastern and western species will not apply. The natural 

 formations of country over which we passed (and which 

 for the most part ran north and south) were most clearly 

 defined, and thus conduced not only to easy observation of 

 species, but also to positive results in recording them. These 

 well-defined formations might and could be likened to a vertical 

 section of different rock strata placed upon a horizontal plane. 



