jgQ Whitlock, Birds on the Pilbarra Goldfield. [ist^Aprii 



with 5. flavcscens. There was, however, no mistake. I am too well 

 acquainted with the familiar call of " Winnie-wieldt " to be deceived. I 

 had an interview at very close quarters, too. Both parents were feeding a 

 fully-fledged young one. 



PSEUDOGERYGONE. — At Condon I shot a small bird in the mangroves. 

 It was uncommon, and difficult to shoot without blowing it to pieces. I was 

 o-uided to it by its notes, which somewhat resembled those of P. culichio)-a. 

 Its plumage, however, differs from the latter very conspicuously, and, as I 

 am unable to identify the species, I send the somewhat damaged skin for 

 inspection. I was fortunate enoug^h to find an empty nest. It was placed 

 at the summit of a young mangrove about 8 feet in height. I tried hard for 

 eggs, but from the behaviour of other pairs I think I was between broods. 

 I heard the same notes in the mangroves at Port Hedland. 



White-winged Wren {Malurus leiicopterus). — ^Not much in evidence, 

 and on only two occasions did I see adult males. I think one pair had a 

 nest, or newly-fledged young, in a patch of thick herbage by the upper 

 Coongan. 



Purple-backed Wren {Malurus assimilis). — This was the Malurus oi 

 the district, but in no instance did I find it far from the main river. In 

 July the males were assuming full plumage, and building operations 

 commenced at the end of the month. 



I found half a dozen nests, but had not much luck with eggs. With one 

 exception the nests were very cunningly concealed in the masses of drift 

 clinging to the scrub growing in the sand-banks in the bed of the Coongan. 

 The exception referred to was constructed in a dead and recumbent bush, 

 without any concealment whatever. It might readily have been mistaken 

 for a small bunch of dried herbage. It contained young birds, which hopped 

 out on my too near inspection. Later on I found a female sitting on one of 

 her own eggs and one of the Bronze-Cuckoo {Chalcococcyx basalis). 



I saw not the slightest evidence of polygamy in the case of this species. 

 This Malurus is double-brooded. 



Western Fantail {Rhipidura preissi). — I was both surprised and 

 pleased to see this famihar south-western species in the mangroves at 

 Coongan and Port Hedland. The young were on the wing. 



Black-and-White Fantail {Rhipidura tricolor).— In scattered pairs 

 throughout the district. I obtained a nest and three eggs close to the old 

 nests of Uroaetus aiidax often before referred to. 



Yellow-spotted Bower-Bird {Clihimydodera guttata)}— K Bower- 

 Bird undoubtedly occurs on the Ridley River, which is in reality the lower 

 Strelley. A kangaroo-hunter gave me a good description of both the birds 

 and their play-grouud. The Strelley River is reputed to fall into the lower 

 de Grey. A watercourse does actually connect the two rivers, but the real 

 Strelley falls into the sea at its own mouth, its lower portions being called 

 the Ridley. 



Striated Grass-Wren {Amyiis striata).— Very rare, and local in the 

 extreme. I only met with it in two localities, in a particularly ferruginous 

 range of hills, and I am not sure that in the second case the bird I saw more 

 than once was not a sohtary male. I shot one pair for identification. It is 

 a wary but not secretive species like its congener, A. £^igan turn (Milligan). 

 The individuals I met with haunted a series of very stony gullies, with very 

 little scrub, but where the spinifex was growing in innumerable large clumps. 

 I was attracted by the pleasing song, which resembles that of a Ma/urus, 

 but is fuller, more musical, and more sustained. I spent many hours 

 searchmg for a nest, but all in vain, and latterly the bird or birds I was 

 watchmg seemed to disappear altogether. 



