90 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



black of our P. superciliosus. The forehead and crown of all 

 my western specimens are blackish-brown rather than the greyish- 

 brown of the eastern birds, and this is rendered more distinct 

 because of the very feeble scale markings in the Kalgoorlie 

 birds. The young bird has no scale markings, and consr quently 

 looks even blacker than the adults. The primaries also are very 

 much darker in the western adults. Briefly, I may say that the 

 young bird of the Kalgoorlie variety is darker, while the adult 

 birds are considerably darker than their eastern representatives. 



Taking another species of this genus, P. temporalis, it will be 

 found that the brown of the tail matures into black, while the 

 fulvous under wing remains similar throughout the different 

 stages. In the species under notice the tail is black in all stages, 

 while the fulvous under wing changes to grey in the adult. 



Having briefly referred to the main differences in the plumage 

 of the Western Australian birds from those of the eastern side 

 of the continent, I will give a more detailed description of the 

 four stages, viz. --—(a) fledgling, (b) young bird, (c) adult male, 

 and (d) adult female ; these I include under Phase 2, the 

 ordinary P. superciliosus forming Phase i ; while a specimen 

 from Stawell, Victoria, represents Phase 3. 



Phase I. — The hitherto described bird with two dark-brown 

 central tail feathers and a head of similar colour. 



Phase 2. — (a) Fledgling. No sex marked. Kalgoorlie, W.A., 

 17th January, 1899. Forehead and crown black, flushed only 

 with very light fulvous ; nape and back uniform brown, tending 

 to muddy grey ; upper tail coverts brownish-grey, the two 

 middle tail feathers deep brownish-black ; flanks fulvous brown ; 

 throat cream, flushed with flesh colour ; primaries and their 

 coverts deep brown, edged with pale chestnut ; superciliary 

 stripe anteriorly fawn, posteriorly white ; inner webs of primaries 

 from third inward broadly edged with fulvous ; bill, 0.20-inch 

 shorter than that of adult. 



(h) Young bird, no sex given. Kalgoorlie, 13th March, 1899. 

 Forehead and crown have brown edges to feathers ; nape and 

 back brownish-black ; upper tail coverts blackish ; two centre 

 tail feathers brownish-black ; flanks brown ; throat cream, 

 flushed with flesh colour ; the primaries and their coverts have 

 lost the pale chestnut noted in (a)\ supei ciliary stripe whiter 

 than in (a) ; inner webs of primaries have less fulvous than in (a), 

 (c) Adult male. Golden Ridge, Kalgoorlie, 19th March, 1S99. 

 Forehead and crown brownish-black, and only slightly scaled ; 

 nape and back sooty-brown; upper tail coverts brownish-black ; 

 two centre tail feathers almost dense black ; flanks brown ; 

 throat cream, flushed with flesh colour ; primaries are brownish- 

 black, except first and second, which are brown (most likely 

 these will disappear next month) ; abdomen dark brown. 



