CQ MiLLIGAN, Some ]V. Ausit alian and Allied Species. 1_,^^ "q'^j 



three Australian ones, and ones upon which Count Salvadori 

 sought to distinguish Strickland's P. niacrorhyncha. In all other 

 skins, except the two mentioned, the pectoral band was connected 

 with the black head. In one other skin the same crescent was 

 abnormally broad, and the area of the white throat-space, in 

 consequence, less, thus furnishing a resemblance to P. schlcgdi 

 (Rosenb.) of New Guinea. The breadth of the band in the skin 

 mentioned measured ^-inch, while in all other skins the breadth 

 of the same band varied from i-inch to :^-inch. In another 

 skin the breast was orange and the axillary regions and under 

 tail coverts were of the same shade, thus departing from the 

 type of P. occidentalis and approaching P. mentalis (Wall.) in 

 those parts. The slate-coloured head of the young male of P . 

 occidentalis furnishes a resemblance to the slate-coloured occiput 

 of P. irmominata (Salvadori). 



Rhipidura preissi (Cabanis) and R. albiscapa (Gould). 



I examined a series of these skins from various parts of the 

 State, including the Murchison District, in the north-west, and 

 in every specimen not only was the blackish chest-band present, 

 but, in addition, strongly marked. The birds from the Mur- 

 chison differ slightly from the southern birds in the plumage 

 colour of the abdomen, the ochreous-buff of the former being 

 almost lost. The brown (in some blackish-brown) shafts of the 

 two central tail feathers and the white shafts of the other tail 

 feathers are constant features. The upper and lower lines of 

 the chest-band of the northern birds were more sharply defined 

 than in the southern ones, the lower line in the latter being 

 irregular, uneven, and ragged. The same peculiarities are also 

 observable in specimens of Orcoica cristata, the northern birds 

 having the pectoral band as sharply defined as that of Pachy- 

 cephala occidentalis. 



Petrceca goodenovi (Vig. & Hors.) and P. ramsayi (Sharpe). 

 Supplementing Mr. Robert Hall's observations on these species 

 in vol. i., part I , of The Emu, I have to record that, in a collection 

 of birds obtained at Wurarga, Murchison, last year, I selected 

 out of a number of skins of P . goodenovi one with a red throat. 

 In my notes on the Wongan Hills trip (see Emu, vol. iv., part i) 

 I recorded having myself shot a bird of the same species pos- 

 sessing a similarly coloured throat. I have already recorded a 

 field note (not my own) of a pair of this species having bred 

 whilst in immature plumage. If variations conversely occur 

 in corresponding parts of P. ramsayi I should be inclined 

 to agree with Mr. Hall's conclusions as regards the status of 

 P. ram.sayi. P. goodenovi is found on Rottnest Island, opposite 

 Fremantle (the port of Perth), but, strange to say, not anywhere 

 on the mainland between the sea-coast and the mountains. On 

 the inland side of the mountains the bird is, comparatively 

 speaking, plentiful in favoured places. The colour of the cap 

 of the Rottnest Island birds varies from pale pink to deep 

 scarlet. 



