104 ■^^^^^' ^^'^'^^^^^- [,sf"oct. 



through them to drive them away from the honey-laden flowers. 

 Apparently the commotion above frightened the Grass- Wren, for 

 it suddenly darted out, and, pausing momentarily in the shelter of 

 the marlock stems, gave me the chance of a successful shot. 

 Several subsequent visits failed to reveal any more of the Grass- 

 Wrens, and it seems to me that the pair originally seen had, for 

 some reason, been driven from, or left, their usual haunt, and 

 temporarily lived on this small, barren hillock, over which I have 

 tramped scores of times, no other marlock or similar class of scrub 

 growing within 2\ miles. Query, What became of the other bird ? 

 Probably a cat had taken it, as domesticated cats, gone wild, have 

 been seen near that hill on different occasions. Two persons used 

 to the bush, to whom I have shown the specimen secured, assure 

 me they have seen the same bird (or very similar), but always in 

 marlock, which, with mallee, mallet, and similar growth, stretches 

 for miles east of the Great Southern railway. A description of the 

 bird shot was read at the meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club of 

 Victoria on the loth August, and a detailed account has appeared 

 in The Victorian Naturalist for September (vol. xxv., p. 86). Since 

 the description mentioned above was forwarded by me, the 

 Director of the Perth Museum has courteously sent me a skin of 

 Amyiornis gigantiira (megahirus, Sharpe) on loan, for comparison 

 with mine. A. gigantura was procured at Day Dawn in 1903, and 

 described by Mr. A. W. Milligan as new. Day Dawn is situated 

 450 miles almost due north from Broome Hill, and is a much 

 hotter and drier district than this, the average rainfall there being 

 probably considerably less than half of what occurs here — viz., 

 8 inches against 22. As a full description of Amytis varia has 

 ah-eady been published, there is no occasion to repeat it here, but 

 comparison with the skin of gigantura shows the following points 

 of difference in Amytis varia : — The whole plumage is much darker 

 and richer in tone, the head especially being almost black, and the 

 abdomen and flanks much darker than in gigantiira, where the 

 centre of abdomen is very light fawn. No trace of the rich 

 chestnut side patches which occur on each side of the chest of 

 gigantura. No reddish lores as in gigantura. The white striations 

 on the head, hind neck, and mantle are much more numerous, and 

 they are also more pronounced on the flanks in varia. Measure- 

 ments of tail and wings are considerably larger in varia. I may 

 remark that the numerous small bars across the tail feathers occur 

 in both skins, and apparently are present in most of the species of 

 Amytornis, though not always mentioned in descriptions by writers. 

 With regard to "marlock," I have adopted this spelling, as Mr. 

 Milligan used it m connection with his trip to the Stirling Ranges, 

 and Mr. A. J. North has spelt it marlock in describing the scrub 

 where Mr. C. Masters obtained specimens of Malurus pulchcrnn-ms, 

 although I am informed by a botanical expert that, according to 

 philologists, the accepted orthography of the word is " maalok " 

 or " maaloch," an aboriginal word signifying thicket, and that to 

 spell it " mar " is wrong (although aborigines have no written 



