28 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



to me at various periods by my enthusiastic correspondent, Mr. 

 Lindsay Cameron. 



Xerophila. 



No sex given. Date of collection, 20/11/98. It resembles 

 X. pectoralis more than any other, but has no pectoral band 

 showing. The under surface is dull white. Bill slightly less 

 robust than that of X. leucopsis, and not finch-like, as credited to 

 X. pectoralis. The white of forehead deeper than in X. leucojjsis. 

 Under tail-coverts cinnamon ; flanks uniform rich cinnamon ; 

 tarsus not compressed, stouter than in X. leucopsis ; tips of tail 

 quills in both webs marked with rufous, as if indicating youth. 

 No Xerophila other than leucopsis, as far as I know, has yet been 

 recorded from South-Western Australia. Total length, 4.5 inches; 

 wing, 2.05 inches; tail, 1.7 inches; bill from gape, .4 inch; 

 tarsus, .6 inch. 



POMATORHINUS. 



Collected 17/1/99. Sex not marked. It bears a close re- 

 semblance to P. superciliosus, and by the markings of its upper 

 wing coverts, which are partly edged with pale chestnut, it may 

 be the young of this species. It differs in having a bill one-fifth 

 less in length, a forehead and crown not scaly, and having the 

 inner webs of the primary wing quills, excepting the first, partially 

 edged with fulvous. Mr. Gould, writing of P. superciliosus, says 

 the sexes of young and old are only distinguishable from one 

 another by dissection. In the specimen under review it is quite 

 easily recognizable from the skins of P. superciliosus in my 

 cabinet. Were it not that P. temporalis has fulvous on the quill 

 webs I should incline myself to believe the next moult would 

 drop the fulvous quills in the W.A. specimen. Perhaps it will in 

 the winter quarter. Mr. Cameron speaks of the Chatterer as the 

 most conspicuous of their birds. "They run and jump along the 

 ground, and fly from bush to bush, never resting for a minute. 

 They have a great variety of notes, and I have several times 

 heard one I did not know, which, in the finding, I learned to be 

 of the Chatterer. On loth August last I found a nest of two 

 eggs and several nests with each two young birds only. One 

 nest contained a young bird and an undeveloped egg. The 

 number of young in each nest was always two." Of P. su2ier- 

 ciliosus the clutch is generally four, while it may range from three 

 to five, according to most observers. At Swan Hill, Victoria, on 

 8/10/96, I observed a nest containing two young, but this seems 

 to be unusual, and it was perhaps a part of a clutch of three eggs. 

 While Mr. Cameron has noted all his nests to contain each two 

 birds or two eggs, the recognized family of P. super cilios^is ranges 

 from three to five. 

 Glycyphila. 



(a.) Male. Collected 27/11/98. Forehead black, some few 



