Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



" Birds of a feather.' 



Vol. XVII.J ist OCTOBER, 1917. [Part 2. 



The YelloW'breasted Bush^Chat (Ephthianura crocea). 



By A. J. Campbell, C.M.B.O.U. 



This rarely-seen and extremely beautiful little species was dis- 

 covered by Mr. T. A. Gulliver, of Townsvillc, when he was in 

 charge of the telegraph station at Normanton, in the Gulf of 

 Carpentaria district, and was described by Count F. de Castelnau 

 and Dr. E. P. Ramsay in the Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W. in 1876 

 (vol. i., p. 380). 



The original of the illustration (Plate XI.) was taken by Mr. 

 Chas. A. Barnard and Trooper F. L. Berney, Ms.R.A.O.U., last 

 March, at Torilla, about 90 miles from Rockhampton, Queens- 

 land. 



As the late Mr. A. J. North has pointed out (" Nests and Eggs," 

 vol. i., p. 352), Ephthianura crocea differs from E. aiirifrons in its 

 smaller size and brighter-coloured under surface, while the male 

 adult of the former has the chin and throat rich yellow, and has 

 a conspicuous crescentic black mark on the fore-neck. 



Mr. North has taken his carefully-worded descriptions of both 

 sexes of Ephthianura crocea from skins obtained near Derby, 

 North-West Australia, which variety Mr. Gregory M. Mathews, 

 F.R.S.E., desires us to differentiate by the trinomial appellation, 

 Aiirepthianura crocea tunneyi (see " List of the Birds of Aus- 

 tralia," 1913, page 208). 



Regarding the bird's habits, Mr. G. A. Keartland, in a com- 

 munication to Mr. North, states : — " Whilst camped beside a 

 lagoon, about four miles from the Fitzroy River, North-Western 

 Australia, and nearly opposite Noonkoombah Station, I saw a 

 great many examples of Ephthianura crocea. Their yellow 



